MEDICAL  THOUGHTS 


OF 


SHAKESPEARE 


By  B.  RUSH  FIELD,  M.  D., 

MEMBER  OF  THE  SHAKESPEARE  SOCIETY 
OF  NEW  YORK. 


SECOND  EDITION,  REVISED  AND  ENLARGED. 


EASTON,  PA.  : 

ANDKEWS    «fc    CLIFTOX,    PUBLISHERS. 

1  886. 


TO  THE  MEDICAL  PROFESSION. 


JO  SECOND  EDITIO 


It'  >\\\y  old  lady,  kniirht,  priest  or  physician, 
Sliould  condemn  me  tor  writing  a  second  edition  , 
It'  tfoud  Madam  S(|iiii)tnin  my  work  should  abuse, 
May  I  venture  to  ^ive  her  a  smack  of  my  muse  V 

Xeiv  Bnth  flu  We.  p.  lf>9. 


THE  occasion  is  taken  to  acknowledge  the  kind  consideration 
that  the  first  edition  of  this  little  work  has  received.  This 
edition  appears  in  a  thoroughly  revised  and  much  enlarged 
form  ;  to  what  extent,  may  bo  judged  by  the  fact  that  chapters 
on  The  Physician,  Surgery,  Physiology,  Anatomy  and  Phar- 
macy have  been  added,  together  with  many  allusions  to  the 
other  medical  subjects,  making  an  increase  of  over  four  hundred 
quotations.  It  has  been  impossible  to  resist  the  temptation  of 
adding  a  lew  medical  thoughts  from  other  authors,  which  will 
be  found  under  their  appropriate  heads.  The  labor  necessary 
to  accomplish  this  has  not  interfered  in  any  way  with  profes- 
sional duties  ;  it  being  a  tUsk  entirely  of  the  leisure  hours  of 
the  night. 

EASTOX,  PENNSYLVANIA,  June.  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


PART   I. 
THE  PHYSICIAN,  7 

PART  II. 
PRACTICE  OF  MEDICINE,  13 

Diseases  df  Nervous  System,  1.",  ;  of  circulatory  System,  'J'2  ;  of  Respiratory 
sy>u>m,  25  ;  of  Digestive  System,  'J(!  :  of  Secretory  System,  29. 
1-V  vers  and  other  (ieiieral  Diseases,  ;5'J.    Act  ion  of 
Medicines,  :}~.    Miscellaneous— 
and  Death.   1:5. 

PART  III. 

Sri{<!ERY,  49 

Surgery  and  tlie  Surgeon,   1«).     Syphilis,  r»o.     I»isea>e>  of  the  Kye,  5:5. 
Wounds,  .-).•{.     Miscellaneous.  .W 

PART   IV. 
OBSTETRICS,  55) 


Marriageable  A^re.  .~)<».     Kecnndation,  <5'J,     Cliaracter  of  ()ll>]»riii^,  (!:>. 
Pregnancy,  <M.     Labor,  (>(>.     Miscellaneous,  71. 

PART  V. 

I'll  YSKUJMiY.  73 

Of  the  Circulation  of  the  Wood,  T."».     of  the  Digestive  Process,  78. 
Miscellaneous,  80. 

PART  VI. 

A  NATOMY,  83 

PART  VII. 
PHARMACY.  -  85 


MEDICAL  THOUGHTS  OF  SHAKESPEARE. 


PART  I. 


THE    PHYSICIAN. 


'UNIVERSITY; 
fa 


'II  A  K  KSPKA  UK'S  education  was  not,  by  any  means,  hedged 
in  by  plots  and  characters  ;  besides  these,  his  mighty  mind 
seems  to  have  tremed  with  the  knowledge  of  languages,  medicine, 
law  and  court  etiquette.  It  is  wonderful  that  one  brain  could  shine 
forth  such  a  vast  variety,  and  surprising  that  he  has  even  gone  into 
the  iiiiinitnt'  of  the  different  avenues  of  learning  through  which 
lie  has  stridden.  Shakespeare  paid  considerable  attention  to 
medicine,  and  has  furnished  some  of  the  finest  specimens  of  the 
medical  character  that  have  ever  been  drawn  by  any  writer. 
His  (Vrimon,  in  Pericles,  is  a  most  noble  one.  He  speaks  for  him- 
self: 

'Tis  known,  I  ever 

Have  studied  physic,  through  which  secret  art, 

By  turning  o'er  authorities,  I  have 

(Together  with  my  practice,)  made  familiar 

To  me  and  to  my  aid,  the  bless'd  infusions 

That  dwell  in  vegetives,  in  metals,  stones; 

And  I  can  speak  of  the  disturbances 

That  nature  works,  and  of  her  cures ;  which  doth  give  me 

A  more  content  in  course  of  true  delight 

Than  to  he  thirsty  after  tottering  honour, 

Or  tie  my  treasure  up  in  silken  bags 

To  please  the  fool  and  death. 

Act  777.,  Sc.  IL 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

And  others  speak  of  him  : 

Hundreds  call  themselves 

Your  creatures,  who  by  you  have  been  restored  : 
And  not  your  knowledge,  your  personal  pain,  but  even 
Your  purse,  still  open,  hath  built  lord  Ceriraon 
Such  strong  renown  as  time  shall  ne'er  decay. 

Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Dowden  says,  "Cerimon,  who  is  master  of  the  secrets  of  nature, 
who  is  liberal  in  his  '  learned  charity,'  who  held  it  ever 

'  Virtue  and  cunning  were  endowments  greater 
Than  nobleness  and  riches.' 

is  like  a  first  study  of  Prospero  ;"  while  Furnivall  thinks  that 
he  represents  to  some  extent  the  famous  Stratford  physician,  Dr. 
John  Hall,  who  married  Shakespeare's  eldest  daughter  Susanna. 

What  an  excellent  physician  was  Gerard  de  Narbon,  Helena's 
father,  who  is  referred  to  in  All's  Well : 

This  young  gentlewoman  had  a  father,  whose  skill  was  almost  as  great  as 
his  honesty  ;  had  it  stretched  so  far,  would  have  made  Nature  immortal,  and 
death  should  have  play  for  lack  of  work.  Would,  for  the  king's  sake,  he  were 
living!  I  think  it  would  be  the  death  of  the  king's  disease.  *  *  *  * 
He  was  famous,  sir,  in  his  profession,  and  it  was  his  right  to  be  so.  * 
The  king  "  spoke  of  him  admiringly  and  mournfully  :  he  was  skill- 

ful enough  to  have  lived  still,  if  knowledge  could  be  set  up  against  mortality. 

AdL,Sc.I. 

How  long  is't,  count, 

Since  the  physician  at  your  father's  died  ? 
If  he  were  living,  I  would  try  him  yet; — 

*    the  rest  have  worn  me  out 
With  several  applications :  nature  and  sickness 
Debate  it  at  their  leisure. 

Act.  /.,  Sc.  II. 

My  father's  skill,  which  was  the  greatest  of  his  profession. 

Act  /.,  Sc.  III. 

Another  worthy  physician  is  to  be  found  in  Cymbeline.  Cor- 
nelius argues  with  the  queen  against  her  designs,  and  failing  in 
this  he  completely  thwarts  her  murderous  intentions  by  giving 
her  a  false  compound. 

8 


THE    PHYSICIAN. 

Queen.  Now,  master  doctor,  have  you  brought  those  drugs? 

Cor.  I  beseech  your  grace,  without  offence, 

My  couscience  bids  me  ask, — wherefore  you  have 
Commanded  of  me  these  most  poisonous  compounds, 
Which  are  the  movers  of  a  languishing  death  ; 
But  though  slow,  deadly  ? 
********* 

Your  highness 

Shall  from  this  practice  but  make  hard  your  heart: 
Besides,  the  seeing  these  effects  will  be 
Both  noisome  and  infectious. 

********* 

[,'l.v/Vf.]  I  do  suspect  you,  madame  ; 

JUit  you  shall  do  no  harm. 

*    *    *    I  do  not  like  her.    She  doth  think  she  has 
Strange  ling'ring  poisons:  I  do  know  her  spirit, 
And  will  not  trust  one  of  her  malice  with 
A  drug  of  such  danm'd  nature.     Those  she  has 

Will  stupify  and  dull  the  sense  awhile  ; 
******    but  there  is 

No  danger  in  what  show  of  death  it  makes, 
More  than  the  locking  up  the  spirits  a  time, 
To  be  more  fresh,  reviving.     She  is  fool'd 
With  a  most  false  effect  :  and  I  the  truer 
So  to  be  i'alse  with  her. 

Act  /.,  So.  V. 

The  queen,  sir,  very  oft  importnn'd  me 
To  temper  poisons  for  her;  still  pretending 
The  satisfaction  of  her  knowledge  only 
In  killing  creatures  vile,  as  cats  and  dogs, 
Of  no  esteem :  I,  dreading  that  her  purpose 
Was  of  more  danger,  did  compound  for  her 
A  certain  stjiff,  which,  being  ta'en,  would  cease 
The  present  power  of  life ;  but  in  short  time 
All  offices  of  nature  should  again 
Do  their  due  function. 

Act  V.jSc.  V. 

Macbeth  supplies  us  with  a  wise  member  of  the  profession, 
who,  at  a  time  when  charlatans  without  number  were  promising 
to  cure  every  malady,  sees  clearly  that  Lady  Macbeth's  disease 
is  beyond  his  power,  and  so  informs  Macbeth. 

This  disease  is  beyond  my  practice : 
******    infected  minds 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

To  their  deaf  pillows  will  discharge  their  secrets. 
More  needs  she  the  diviue  than  the  physician  : 

•X-          -::-          -:•:•          -x-          -::-          -::-          -::-          -:;-          -:;- 

Remove  from  her  the  means  of  all  annoyance, 
And  still  keep  eyes  upon  her. 

•Art  I'.,  Sc.  L 

King  Macl>.  How  does  your  patient,  doctor? 
Doct.    Not  so  sick,  my  lord, 

As  she  is  troubled  with  thick-corning  fancies, 

That  keep  her  from  her  rest. 
I\hi(/  Macb.  Cure  her  of  that : 

Canst  thou  not  minister  to  a  mind  diseas'd  ; 

Pluck  from  the  memory  a  rooted  sorrow ; 

Raze  out  the  written  troubles  of  the  brain  ; 

And,  with  some  sweet  oblivious  antidote, 

Cleanse  the  stuff'd  bosom  of  that  perilous  stuff 

Which  weighs  upon  the  heart? 
Doct.    Therein  the  patient 

Must  minister  to  himself. 

King  Mad).  Throw  physic  to  the  dogs, 

I'll  none  of  it. 

Macbeth.  Act  J'.,  Sc.  III. 

In  King  Lear  also  appears  a  physician  worthy  of  the  name. 
The  last  scene  of  the  fourth  act  shows  his  excellent  skill  in  treat- 
ing Lear's  case.  Dr.  Bucknill,  of  England,  in  writing  of  it 
twenty-five  years  ago,  says :  "  We  confess;  almost  with  shame, 
that  although  near  two  centuries  and  a  half  have  passed  since 
Shakespeare  thus  wrote  we  have  very  little  to  add  to  his  method 
of  treating  the  insane  as  thus  pointed  out." 

Dr.  Butts,  in  Henry  VIII,  and  Dr.  Cains,  in  Merry  Wives, 
play  rather  unimportant  parts.  He  compliments  the  profession 
by  putting  this  speech  in  the  mouth  of  a  madman  : 

Timon  to  Banditti  : 

Trust  not  the  physician  ; 
His  antidotes  are  poison,  and  he  slays 
More  than  you  rob. 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  77'.,  Sc.  III. 

And  bringing  this  one  from  the  lips  of  an  ignorant  prostitute: 

Nay,  will  you  cast  away  your  child  on  a  fool  and  a  physician  ? 

Merry  Wive*,  Ad  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

10 


THE    PHYSICIAN. 

Reference  to  the  physician  is  frequently  made  throughout  his 
works. 

(  'or.   The  queen  is  dead. 

('I/HI.  Whom  worse  than  a  physician 

Would  this  report  become.     But  I  consider, 
By  med'cine  life  may  be  prolong'd,  yet  death 
Will  seize  the  doctor  too. 

Ct/ntbeline,  Act  F.,  Sc.  V. 

doctor-like,  controlling  skill. 

Sonnet*,  LXl'I. 

We    '  may  not  be  so  credulous  of  cure, 

When  our  most  learned  doctors  leave  us. 

All's  }\'<U,Act  //.,  ,SV.  /. 

Kill  thy  physician,  and  the  lee  bestow 
Upon  the  foul  disease. 

Lear,  Act  /.,  ,SV-.  7. 


Thou  speak'st  like  a  physician,  llelieanus; 

That  minister's!  a  potion  unto  me, 

That  thou  would'st  tremble  to  receive  thyself. 

YW/V/rx,  Act  I.,Sc.  II. 

The  patient  dies  while  the  physician  sleeps. 

Lucrece. 

The  physician 

Angry  that  his  proscription*  are  not  kept. 
Hath  left  me. 

Sonnets,  CXL  VII. 

Testy  sick  men,  when  their  deaths  be  near, 
Xo  news  but  health  from  their  physicians  know. 

Sonnet*,  CXL. 

His  friends,  like  physicians,  thrice  give  him  over. 

TimoH  of  Athens,  Act  III.,  Sc.  III. 

He  is  the  wiser  man,  master  doctor;  he  is  a  curer  of  souls,  and  you  a  curer 
of  bodies. 

Merry  Wives,  Act  II.  ,  Sc.  III. 

A  poor  physician's  daughter  my  wife  !     Disdain 
Rather  corrupt  me  ever. 

AlPs  Well,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 

Doctors,  less  iimions  for  their  cures  than  fees. 

Huron—  Don  Juan,  Canto  XIV..  Verse  XLVIIT. 

11 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

Like  a  port  sculler,  one  physician  plies 
And  all  his  art  and  all  his  skill  he  tries  ; 
But  two  physicians,  like  a  pair  of  oars, 
Conduct  you  faster  to  the  Stygian  shores. 

This  is  the  way  physicians  mend  or  end  ns, 

Src/indum  artem  :  but  although  we  sneer 

In  health— when  ill,  we  call  them  to  attend  us 

Without  the  least  propensity  to  jeer; 

While  that  "  hiatus  max/me  dejieudiu 

To  be  filled  up  by  spade  or  mattock,  rs  near, 

Instead  of  gliding  graciously  down  Lethe, 

We  tease  mild  Baillie,  or  soft  Abernethy. 

Byron — Don  Juan,  Canto  X,  Verw  XLII. 

God  and  the  doctor  we  alike  adore, 
But  only  when  in  danger,  not  before  ; 
The  danger  o'er,  both  are  alike  requited, 
God  is  forgotten,  and  the  doctor  slighted. 

The  doctor  says  so    *****    * 
*******    they  sometimes 
Are  soothsayers  and  always  cunning  men. 
Which  doctor  was  it  ? 

Ben  Jonson — Magnetic  Lady,  Act  IT.,  Sc.  I. 

A  side  thrust  at  the  experimenters  in  the  profession  is  found 

in  Cymbeline. 

I  do  know  her  spirit, 
And  will  not  trust  one  of  her  malice  with 
A  drug  of  such  damn'd  nature.     Those  she  has 
Will  stupify  and  dull  the  sense  awhile  ; 
Which  first,  perchance,  she'll  prove  on  cats  and  dogs, 
Then  afterwards  up  higher.  Act  /.,  Sc.  V. 

I  can  smile,  and  murder  whiles  I  smile. 

Henry  VI.— 3d,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

He  has  in  several  plays  shown  his  contempt  for  the  "prating 
mountebank  "  or  "  doting  wizard." 

They  brought  one  Pinch,  a  hungry,  lean-fac'd  villain, 

A  mere  anatomy,  a  mountebank, 

A  thread-bare  juggler,  and  a  fortune  teller ; 

A  needy,  hollo w-ey'd,  sharp-looking  wretch, 

A  living  dead  man :  this  pernicious  slave, 

Forsooth,  took  on  him  as  a  conjurer, 

And,  gazing  in  mine  eyes,  feeling  my  pulse, 

And  with  no  face,  as  'twere,  out-facing  me, 

Cries  out  I  was  possessed  Comedy  of  Errors,  Act  V.,  Sc-  I. 

I  say  we  must  not 

So  stain  our  judgment,  or  corrupt  our  hope. 
To  prostitute  our  past-cure  malady 
To  empirics ;  or  to  dissever  so 
Our  great  self  and  our  credit,  to  esteem 
A  senseless  help,  when  help  past  sense  we  deem. 

AIVs  Well,  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

12 


(•UNIVERSITY; 

oy 

IFOtf 


PART  II. 

PRACTICE   OF    MEDICINE. 

Shakespeare's  maladies  are  many  and  the  symptoms  very  well 
defined.  Diseases  of  the  nervous  system  seem  to  have  been  a 
favorite  study,  especially  insanity:  Lear,  Timon,  and  Hamlet 
excellent  examples. 

And  he  (a  short  tale  to  make), 

Fell  into  a  sadness;  then  into  a  fast; 
Thence  to  a  watch  ;  thence  into  a  weakness; 
Thence  to  a  lightness;  and,  by  this  declension 
Into  the  madness  wherein  now  he  raves. 

I/innh-f,  Act  II.,  Sc.  II. 

He  took  me  by  the  wrist  and  held  me  hard  ; 

Then  goes  he  to  the  length  of  all  his  arm  ; 

And  with  his  other  hand  thus  o'er  his  brow, 

He  falls  to  such  perusal  of  my  face, 

As  he  would  draw  it.     Long  stay'd  he  so; 

At  last, — a  little  shaking  of  mine  arm, 

And  thrice,  his  head  thus  waving  up  and  down, 

Ife  raised  a  sigh  so  piteous  and  profound, 

That  it  did  seem  to  shatter  all  his  bulk, 

And  end  his  being :  That  done,  he  lets  me  go  : 

And,  with  his  head  o'er  his  shoulder  turn'd, 

He  seem'd  to  find  his  way  without  his  eyes; 

For  out  o'  doors  he  went  without  their  help, 

And.  to  the  last,  bended  their  light  on  me. 

Hamlet,  Act  //.,  Sc.  I. 

Alas,  how  is  it  with  you, 
That  you  do  bend  your  eye  on  vacancy, 
And  with  the  incorporal  air  do  hold  discourse? 
Forth  at  your  eyes  your  spirits  wildly  peep  : 
And,  as  the  sleeping  soldiers  in  the  alarm, 
Your  bedded  hair,  like  life  in  excrements, 
Starts  up,  and  stands  on  end. 

Hamlet,  Act  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

13 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

O,  what  a  noble  mind  is  here  o'erthrown ! 

The  courtier's,  scholar's,  soldier's,  eye,  tongue,  sword  : 

The  expectancy  and  rose  of  the  fair  state, 

The  glass  of  fashion  and  the  mould  of  form, 

The  observed  of  all  observers, — quite,  quite  down  ! 

And  I,  of  ladies  most  deject  and  wretched, 

That  snck'd  the  honey  of  his  music  vows, 

Now  see  that  noble  and  most  sovereign  reason, 

Like  sweet  bells  jangled,  out  of  tune  and  harsh  ; 

That  unmatch'd  form  and  feature  of  blown  youth, 

Blasted  with  ecstasy. 

Hamlet,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

There's  something  in  his  soul, 
O'er  which  his  melancholy  sits  on  brood ; 
And  I  do  doubt  the  hatch  and  the  disclose, 
Will  be  some  danger. 

Hamlet,  Act  IIL,  ,SV.  /. 

Canst  thou  not  minister  to  a  mind  diseas'd  ; 
Pluck  from  the  memory  a  rooted  sorrow ; 
Raze  out  the  written  troubles  of  the  brain  ; 
And,  with  some  sweet  oblivious  antidote, 
Cleanse  the  stuff'd  bosom  of  that  perilous  stuff 
Which  weighs  upon  the  heart? 

Macbeth,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

*     *     *     *     •*     Infected  minds 
To  their  deaf  pillows  will  discharge  their  secrets. 
•x-*******-* 
Remove  from  her  the  means  of  all  annoyance, 
And  still  keep  eyes  upon  her. 

Macbeth,  Act  V.,  Se.  I. 

Infirmity  doth  still  neglect  all  office, 

Whereto  our  health  is  bound ;  we  are  not  ourselves, 

When  nature,  being  oppress'd,  commands  the  mind 

To  suffer  with  the  body  :  I'll  forbear  ; 

And  am  fall'n  out  with  my  more  headier  will, 

To  take  the  indispos'd  and  sickly  fit 

For  the  sound  man. 

King  Lear,  Act  II.,  Sc.  IV. 

This  is  in  thee  a  nature  but  infected  ; 
A  poor  unmanly  melancholy,  sprung 

From  change  of  fortune. 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

14 


PRACTICE    OK    MEDICINE. 

The  mere  want  of  gold,  and  the  fall  ing- from  of  his  friends,  drove  him  into 
this  melancholy. 

Timon  of  AtJicn»,A<-t  IV.,  Sc  III. 

Tell  him     »'**»** 

that  his  lady  mourns  at  his  disease  : 
Persuade  him  that  he  hath  been  a  lunatic. 

Tnm'nuj  of  fin'  Stin-ir,  Jnd.,  Sc.  I. 

Being  lunatic 

Iff  nish'd  into  my  hou*e,  and  took  perforce 
My  rinu  away. 

Co,,,,*/!/  nf  AY/wx,  Art  /J'.,  Si:  III. 

These  dangerous  unsafe  lunes. 

H'/M/r/N  T«l>:  AH  II .  S,:  II. 

With  great  imagination, 
Proper  to  madmen,  led  his  powers  to  death, 
And.  winking,  leap'd  into  destruction. 

11,.,,-y  /r-tM,  AH.  /.  .V.  ///. 

Ol't  tin-  rye  mistakes,  the  hrain  heing  troubled. 

I  Y////.S  unil  Adonix. 

To  see  his  nobleness  ! 
Conceiving  the  dishonour  of  his  mother, 
lit-  straight  declin'd.  droop'd.  took  it  deeply ; 
Fasten'd  and  lix'd  the  shame  on  't  in  himself; 
Threw  otf  his  spirit,  his  ajipetite,  his  sleep, 
And  downright  languish 'd. 

MV///rr<x  7V///-.  Art  //.,  ,SV-    7/7. 

His  siege  is  now 

Against  the  mind,  the  which  he  pricks  and  wounds 
With  many  legions  of  strange  fantasies, 
Which,  in  their  throng  and  press  to  that  last  hold, 
( 'on found  themselves. 

Kiiif/  John,  Act  V.,  Sc.  VII. 

Shakespeare  certainly  had  the  true  idea  of  the  great  value  of 
sleep,  and  he  also  knew  of  its  importance  in  the  treatment  of 
l»rain  discuses.  Sleep  serves  as  an  excellent  stimulant,  promot- 
ing the  growth  of  the  brain.  The  infant,  during  the  first  ten 
weeks  of  its  life,  sleeps  most  of  the  time  and  hence  during  that 
its  brain  is  overdeveloped  in  proportion  to  its  size. 

Our  foster-nurse  of  nature  is  repose, 

The  which  he  lacks  ;  that  to  provoke  in  him, 

16 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 


Are  many  simples  operative,  whose  power 
Will  close  the  eye  of  anguish. 

Kin;/  Lent-,  AH  IV.,  PC.  //'. 

O  sleep,  gentle  sleep, 
Nature's  soft  nurse, 

King  Henry  IV—  M,  Act  III.,  He.  7 

Sleep,  that  knits  up  the  ravell'd  sleave  of  care, 
The  death  of  each  day's  life,  sore  labour's  hath, 
Balm  of  hurt  minds,  great  nature's  second  course, 
Chief  nourisher  of  life's  feast. 

Macbeth,  Act  77.,  Sc.  I. 

Oppressed  nature  sleeps  :  — 

This  rest  might  yet  have  balm'd  thy  broken  senses, 
Which,  if  convenient  will  not  allow, 
Stand  in  hard  cure. 

Kin  {/  Lear,  AH  III.,  ,S'c.  VI. 

Man's  rich  restorative  ;  his  balmy  bath, 
That  supplies,  lubricates  and  keeps  in  play 
The  various  movements  of  that  nice  machine. 
Which  asks  such  frequent  periods  of  repair. 


Music  was  held  as  one  of  the  remedies  in  the  treatment  of 
insanity.  It  plays  an  important  part  in  King  Lear,  (IV-VI  I  ), 
and  finds  mention  as  a  remedy  in  other  plays. 

This  music  mads  me,  let  it  sound  no  more  ; 
For,  though  it  have  holp  madmen  to  their  wits, 
In  me  it  seems  it  will  make  wise  men  mad. 

Richard  II.,  AH  V.,  Sc.  V. 

Let  there  be  no  noise  made,  my  gentle  friends  ; 
Unless  some  dull  and  favourable  hand 
Will  whisper  music  to  my  weary  spirit. 

Henry  IV—  ^d,  Act  IV.,  ,SV.  IV. 

Your  honour's  players,  hearing  your  amendment, 
Are  come  to  play  a  pleasant  comedy, 
For  so  your  doctors  hold  it  very  meet. 
Seeing  too  much  sadness  hath  congeal  'd  your  blood, 
And  melancholy  is  the  nurse  of  frenzy  ; 
Therefore,  they  thought  it  good  you  hear  a  play, 
And  frame  your  mind  to  mirth  and  merriment, 
Which  bars  a  thousand  harms,  and  lengthens  life. 

Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Iml,  Sc.  II. 

16 


PRACTICE   OF   MEDICINE. 

Your  physicians  have  expressly  charg'd, 
In  peril  to  incur  your  former  malady, 
That  I  should  yet  absent  me  from  your  bed. 

Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Ind.,  Sc.  II. 
This  closing  with  him  fits  his  lunacy : 
Whate'er  I  forge  to  feed  his  brain-sick  fits, 
Do  you  uphold  and  maintain  in  your  speeches. 

Tit un  Andronicus,  Act  V.,  Sc.  II. 
Dispute  not  with  her,  she  is  lunatic. 

Richard  III.,  Act  I..  Sc  III. 

Deserves  as  well  a  dark  house  and  a  whip  as  madmen  do. 
As  You  Like  It,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Why  have  you  suffer'd  me  to  be  imprison'd, 
Kept  in  a  dark  house? 

Twelfth  Night,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

It  is  tin-  myudethat  makes  good  or  ill, 

That  maketh  wretch  or  happie,  rich  or  poore. 

Sl>rn wr—n,ric  (jneene,  XI-IX. 
Yet  they  do  act 

such  antics  and  such  pretty  lunacies 
That  spite  of  .sorrow  they  make  you  smile. 

DeUter. 

•  Irows  lunatic  and  childish  for  his  son. 

Kyd. 

When  slow  Disease,  and  all  her  host  of  pains, 
t 'hills  the  warm  tide  which  Hows  along  the  veins  ; 
\Yhfii  Health,  affrighted,  spreads  her  rosy  wing, 
And  Hies  with  every  changing  gale  of  Spring  ; 
Not  to  the  aching  frame  alone  confined, 
I'nyielding  pangs  assail  the  drooping  mind. 

Bi/ron— Childish  Recollections. 

The  accuracy  with  which  Shakespeare  has  written  of  apoplexy 
is  justly  alluded  to  in  Bell's  Principles  of  Surgery,  (1815,  Yol.  II, 
p.  557)  :  "My  readers  will  smile,  perhaps,  to  see  me  quoting 
Shakespeare  among  physicians  and  theologists ;  but  not  one  of 
all  their  tribe,  populous  though  it  be,  could  describe  so  exquis- 
itely the  marks  of  apoplexy,  conspiring  with  the  struggles  for 
life,  and  the  agonies  of  suffocation,  to  deform  the  countenance  of 
the  dead  :  so  curiously  does  our  poet  present  to  our  conception 
all  the  signs  from  which  it  might  be  inferred  that  the  good  duke 
Humfrey  had  died  a  violent  death." 

17 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

See,  how  the  blood  is  settled  in  his  face ! 

Oft  have  I  seen  a  timely-parted  ghost, 

Of  ashy  semblance,  meagre,  pale,  and  bloodless, 

Being  all  descended  to  the  labouring  heart ; 

Who,  in  the  conflict  that  it  holds  with  death, 

Attracts  the  same  for  aidance  'gainst  the  enemy ; 

Which  with  the  heart  there  cools,  and  ne'er  returneth 

To  blush  and  beautify  the  cheek  again. 

But  see,  his  face  is  black  and  full  of  blood ; 

His  eye-balls  further  out  than  when  he  liv'd, 

Staring  full  ghastly  like  a  strangled  man  : 

His  hair  uprear'd,  his  nostrils  stretch'd  with  struggling  ; 

His  hands  abroad  display'd,  as  one  that  grasp'd 

And  tugg'd  for  life,  and  was  by  strength  subdu'd. 

Look  on  the  sheets,  his  hair,  you  see,  is  sticking ; 

His  well-proportion 'd  beard  made  rough  and  rugged, 

Like  tp  the  summer's  corn  by  tempest  lodg'd. 

It  can  not  be  but  he  was  murder'd  here  ; 

The  least  of  all  these  signs  were  probable. 

Henry  VI—  2d,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Suddenly  a  grievous  sickness  took  him, 

That  made  him  gasp,  and  stare,  and  catch  the  air. 

Henry  VI—  2rf,  Act  III..  Sc.  II. 

Fahtaff.    And  I  hear  moreover,  his  highness  is  fallen  into  this  same  whoreson 

apoplexy. 

Ch.  Just.  Well,  heaven  mend  him !     I  pray  let  me  speak  with  you. 
Falstaff.    This  apoplexy  is,  as  I  take  it,  a  kind  of  lethargy,  an  't  to  please  your 

lordship ;  a  kind  of  sleeping  in  the  blood,  a  whoreson  tingling. 
Ch.  Just.  What  tell  you  me  of  it  ?    Be  it  as  it  is. 
Falstaff.    It  hath  its  original  from  much  grief;  from  study  and  perturbation 

of  the  brain. 

Henry  IV—  2rf,  Act  /.,  Sc.  IL 

War.  Be  patient,  princes ;  you  do  know,  these  fits 
Are  with  his  highness  very  ordinary. 
Stand  from  him,  give  him  air  ;  he'll  straight  be  well. 

Clar.   No,  no ;  he  can  not  long  hold  out  these  pangs: 
The  incessant  care  and  labour  of  his  mind 
Hath  wrought  the  mure,  that  should  confine  it  in, 
So  thin,  that  life  looks  through,  and  will  break  out. 
********** 

P.  Humph.  This  apoplexy  will  certain  be  his  end. 

Henry  71—2*7,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

18 


1'RA'TICK    (>F    MEDICINE. 

Peace  is  a  very  apoplexy,  lethargy  ;  mulled,  deaf,  sleepy,  insensible. 

Coriolamis,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  V. 
Did-.  Why  dost  thou  quiver,  man  ? 
Hay.     The  palsy  and  not  fear  provokes  me. 
O/f/r.   X;iy,  he  nods  at  us,  as  who  should  say, 
I'll  be  even  with  you. 

Henry  VI—  Id,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  VII. 

With  a  palsy  -fumbling  on  his  gorget, 
Shake  in  and  out  the  rivet. 

Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  I.,  Sc.  III. 

How  quickly  should  this  arm  of  mine, 
Now  prisoner  to  the  palsy,  chastise  thee. 

//,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 


Flat  on  the  ground  and  siill  as  any  stone, 
A  very  corpse,  save  yielding  forth  a  breath. 

Sackvitte. 

How  concisely  he  describes  epilepsy,  giving  the  most  promi- 
nent symptoms. 

fv».sca.  He  fell  down  in  the  market-place,  and  foamed  at  mouth,  and  was 

speechless. 

Urn.     'Tis  very  like,  —  he  has  the  falling  sickness. 
Cnwa.  *  When  he  came  to  himself  again,  he  said,  If  he  had 

done  or  said  anything  amiss,  he  desired  their  worships  to  think 

it  was  his  infirmity. 

Julius  Csesar,  Act  I.,  Sc.  II. 

.Julius  Ciosar  wus  the  only  epileptic  among  his  characters: 
Othello  is  spoken  of  as  being  one,  but  this  is  merely  lago's  lie  to 
Cassio,  which  is  clearly  shown  in  Othello's  conversation  after  the 
trance,  it  being  a  continuation  of  the  former  subject,  which  is 
never  the  ease  in  epilepsy. 


.  My  lord  is  fall'n  into  an  epilepsy  : 

This  i.s  his  second  fit  ;  he  had  one  yesterday. 
('«*.    Rub  him  about  the  temples. 

No,  forbear  ; 

The  lethargy  must  have  his  quiet  course; 
If  not,  he  foams  at  mouth,  and  by  and  by 

I'.ivuks  out  to  savage  madness. 

Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 

\  plague  upon  your  epileptic  visage  ! 

King  Lear,  Act.  //.,  Sc.  II. 

19 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF   SHAKESPEARE. 

He  takes  some  notice  of  the  other  affections  classed  under 
nervous  diseases. 

Which  of  your  hips  has  the  most  profound  sciatica? 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  L,  Sc.  II. 

Thou  cold  sciatica, 

Cripple  our  Senators,  that  their  limbs  may  halt 
As  lamely  as  their  manners  ! 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  L 

Lord,  how  my  head  aches  !  what  a  head  have  I ! 
It  beats  as  it  would  fall  in  twenty  pieces 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  II.,  Sc.  V. 
When  your  head  did  but  ache 
I  knit  my  handkerchief  about  your  brows. 

King  John,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 

Of  ft.  I  have  a  pain  upon  my  forehead  here. 

Des.  Why,  that's  with  watching ;  't  will  away  again. 

Otliello,  Act  III.,  Sc.    II. 
Let  our  finger  ache,  and  it  indues 
Our  other  healthful  members  even  to  a  sense 
Of  pain 

Othello,  Act  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

Leander,  he  would  have  lived  many  a  fair  year,  though  Hero  had  turned 
nun,  if  it  had  not  been  for  a  hot  midsummer  night;  for  good  youth  he  went 
but  forth  to  wash  him  in  the  Hellespont,  and  being  taken  with  the  cramp, 
was  drowned. 

As  You  Like  It,  Act  IV,,  Sc.  I 

The  aged  man  that  coffers-up  his  gold 

Is  plagu'd  with  cramps,  and  gouts  and  painful  fits. 

Lucrece. 

Shorten  up  their  sinews 
With  aged  cramps. 

Tempest,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  L 

To-night  thou  shall  have  cramps, 

Side  stitches  that  shall  pen  thy  breath  up. 

Tempest,  Act  /.,  Sc.  II. 

I'll  rack  thee  with  old  cramps, 
Fill  all  thy  bones  with  aches. 

Tempext,  Act  /.,  Sc.  II. 

Thy  nerves  are  in  their  infancy  again 
And  have  no  vigour  in  them. 

Tempest,  Act  /.,  Sc.  II. 

20 


PRACTICE    OF    MEDICINE. 

Ilysteriu.  in  Shakespeare's  time,  was  considered  a  disease 
common  to  both  sexes,  and  was  known  as  "  Hysterica  passio"  or 
more  popularly  termed  "  the  mother." 

O,  how  this  mother  swells  up  toward  my  heart! 
Hyster'n-a  JHIKXI'O — down,  thou  climbing  sorrow, 
Thy  element  's  below!     Where  is  this  daughter? 

Kiny  Lear,  Act  II.,  Sc.  IV. 

Perry  thinks  that  Shakespeare  road  of  this  disease  in  Hars- 
net's  ;-  Declaration  of  Popish  Impostures  "  while  he  was  looking 
up  material  for  his  character  of  Tom  of  Bedlam.  The  following 
is  taken  from  (p.  U.~> )  the  work  referred  to:  "Ma:  Maynie  had 
a  spire  of  the  Hysterica  passio  as  seems  from  his  youth,  hee  him- 
self termes  it  t  he  Moother,  and  saith  that  hee  was  much  troubled 
with  it  in  I'1  rainier,  and  that  it  was  one  of  the  causes  that  mooved 
him  to  leave  his  holy  order  whereinto  he  was  initiated  and  to 
returne  into  Knglaml." 

Disease's  of  the  nervous  system  have  not  been  overlooked  by 
other  writers.  How  excellently  we  have  described  the  chief 
svmptom  of  loCOMOtOT  iitn.n'd  : 

Obliquely  waddlimr  to  the  mark  in  view. 

Pope. 

And   I'yron  well  portrays  vertigo. 

Her  check  turn'd  ashes,  ears  rung,  brain  whiiTd  round, 

As  if  she  had  received  a  sudden  blow, 

And  the  hearts  dew  of  pain  sprang  last  and  chilly 

o'er  her  fair  front,  like  morning's  on  a  lily. 

Although  she  was  not  of  the  fainting  sort, 

llaba  thought  she  would  faint,  but  there  he  err'd— 

It  was  but  a  convulsion,  which,  though  short. 

Can  never  be  described  :  we  all  have  heard. 

And  some  of  us  have  felt  thus  "  all  amort," 

When  things  beyond  the  common  have  occurr'd. 

Don  Jiiitn,  Canto  VI.,  Verse  CV. 


That  old  vertigo  in  his  head 

Will  never  leave  him.  till  he's  dead. 

Swift. 

of  all  mad  creatures,  if  the  learned  are  right. 

li  is  the  slaver  kills  and  not  the  bite. 

Pope. 

Loss  !— such  a  palaver. 

I'd  inoculate  sooner  my  wife  with  the  slaver 
of  a  dog  when  gone  rabid,  than  listen  two  hours 

:!:        :•:         :•:        *        *        * 

Byron— The.  Blue*. 

21 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    .SHAKESPEARE. 


The  sot, 

I I.-uli  got  blue  devils  for  his  morning  mirrors  : 
What  though  on  Lethe's  stream  lie  seem  to  lloiit, 
He  can  not  sink  his  tremors  or  his  terrors; 
The  ruby  glass  that  shakes  within  his  hand, 
Leaves  a  sad  srdimeut  of  Time's  worst  sand. 

Hi/run — Don  Juan,  Canto  AT.,   IV'/w  71". 

Taking  up  diseases  of  the  circulatory  system  next  we  find 
Shakespeare  displaying  considerable  knowledge  in  regard  to 
them.  The  extended  impulse  of  the  heart  under  intense  excite- 
ment is  nicely  shown  in  the  Rape  of  Lucrece. 

His  hand,  that  yet  remains  upon  her  breast, — 
Rude  ram,  to  batter  such  an  ivory  wall ! 
May  feel  her  heart, —  (poor  citizen  !)  distressed. 
Wounding  itself  to  death,  rise  up  and  fall, 
Beating  her  bulk,  that  his  hand  shakes  withal. 

Again. 

I  fear'd  thy  fortune,  and  my  joints  did  tremble. 
**######         -:;- 

My  boding  heart  pants,  beats,  and  takes  no  rest. 
But,  like  an  earthquake,  shakes  thee  on  my  breast. 

Venus  and  Adonit*. 

I  have  tremor  cordix  on  me, — my  heart  dances. 

Win  fern  Talc,  AH  /.,  ,SV«.  //. 

Whose  horrid  image  doth  unfix  my  hair, 
And  make  my  seated  heart  knock  at  my  ribs, 
Against  the  use  of  nature  ? 

Macbeth,  AH  /.,  ,SV-.  ///. 

Death  from  "broken  heart,"  caused  by  excessive  grief,  finds 
mention  in  several  plays. 

Woe  the  while ! 

O,  cut  my  lace;  lest  my  heart,  cracking  it, 
Break  too ! 

Winter' 8  Tale,  AH  ///.,  S<:  II. 

The  grief  that  does  not  speak, 
Whispers  the  o'er-fraught  heart,  and  bids  it  break. 

Macbeili,  AH  IV.,  ,SV-.  ///. 

Shall  split  thy  very  heart  with  sorrow. 

Richard  III.,  AH  I.,  ,SV-.  TIL 

22 


IM<A<TH'K    OF    MKDK'INE. 

Dyer  iii  liis  ••  Folk-Lore  of  Shakespeare  "  quotes  the  following 
Irom  Mr.  Timb's  "Mysteries  of  Life,  Death,  and  Futurity," 
(  ISiil.  ]>.  1  1!».)  "  This  affection  (broken-heart)  was,  it  is  believed, 
first  described  by  Harvey;  but  since  his  day  several  cases  have 
been  observed.  Morgagni  has  recorded  a  few  examples:  among 
them,  that  of  (leorge  II..  who  died  in  17GO  ;  and,  what  is  very 
curious,  he  fell  a  victim  to  the  same  malad}'.  Dr.  Elliotson,  in 
his  Ltimlcyan  Lectures  on  Diseases  of  the  Heart,  in  1839,  stated 
that  he  had  only  seen  one  instance;  but  in  the  <  Cyclopaedia  of 
Practical  Medicine'  Dr.  Townsend  gives  a  table  of  twenty-five 
cases,  collected  from  various  authors." 

A  very  good  case  of  syncope  is  presented  in  Pericles.  "The 
cases  of  apparent  death,  in  which  it  is  believed  that  premature 
interment  sometimes  takes  place,  are  of  this  kind.  Instances 
have  occurred  in  which  the  pulse,  respiration  and  consciousness 
have  been  absent  for  several  days,  and  yet  thfc  patient  has  ulti- 
matelv  recovered.  The  system  is  in  a  sort  of  hybernation,  in 
which  vitality  remains,  though  the  vital  functions  are  suspended. 
It  is  probable  that,  in  such  cases,  a  very  careful  auscultation 
might  detect  a  slight  sound  in  the  heart."  (Dr.  George  B. 
Wood's  Practice.  1S5S.  Vol.  U..  p.  211.) 

Make  a  fire  within  ; 

Fetcli  hither  all  my  Itoxes  in  my  closet. 
Death  may  usurp  on  nature  many  hours, 
Ami  yet  the  fire  of  life  kindle  again 
The  o'erpress'd  spirits.     I  have  heard 
Of  an  Kgyptian  that  had  nine  hours  lien  dead, 
Who  was  by  good  appliance  recovered. 

the  tire  and  cloths- - 

The  rough  and  woeful  music  that  we  have, 
Cause  it  to  sound,  'beseech  you. 
The  viol  once  more  ; 

I  pray  you,  give  her  air; 

This  queen  will  live;  nature  awakes;  a  warmth 
Breathes  out  of  her:     She  hath  not  been  entranc'd 
About  five  hours.     See  how  she  'gins  to  blow 

Into  life's  flower  again! 

-::•          -::-          »          *          *          *          w          -*     .     -::• 

Hush,  my  gentle  neighbors! 
Lend  me  your  hands  ;  to  the  next  chamber  bear  her. 

23 


MEDICAL    THOrOHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

Get  liiien  ;  now  this  matter  must  be  looked  to, 
For  her  relapse  is  mortal.     Come,  come, 
And  .Esculapius  guide  us! 

AH  III.,  ,S'r.  //. 

Take  thou  this  phial,  being  then  in  bed, 

And  this  distilled  liquor  drink  thou  off: 

When,  presently,  through  all  thy  veins  shall  run 

A  cold  and  drowsy  humour,  for  no  pulse 

Shall  keep  his  native  progress,  but  surcease, 

No  warmth,  no  breath,  shall  testify  thou  liv'st: 

The  roses  in  thy  lips  and  cheeks  shall  fade 

To  paly  ashes  ;  thy  eyes'  windows  fall, 

Like  death,  when  he  shuts  up  the  day  of  life  : 

Each  part,  depriv'd  of  supple  government, 

Shall,  stiff,  and  stark,  and  cold,  appear  like  death  : 

And  in  this  borrow'd  likeness  of  shrunk  death 

Thou  shalt  continue  two  and  forty  hours, 

And  then  awake  as  from  a  pleasant  sleep. 

Romeo  and  JttliH,  Act  7J'.,  tic.  I. 

Why  does  my  blood  thus  muster  to  my  heart. 

Making  both  it  unable  for  itself, 

And  dissposessing  all  my  other  parts 

Of  necessary  fitness  ? 

So  play  the  foolish  throngs  with  one  that  swoons : 

Come  all  to  help  him,  and  so  stop  the  air 

By  which  he  should  revive. 

Measure  for  Measure,  AH  II.,  ,SV.  IV. 

Many  will  swoon  when  they  do  look  on  blood. 

.Is  You  Like  It,  AH.  IV.,  tic.  III. 

No  damsel  faints  when  rather  closely  press' d. 
I'.ut  more  Careming  Seems  when  most  caress' d  : 
Superfluous  hartshorn,  and  reviving  salts, 
lioth  hanish'd  l>y  the  sovereign  cordial  "  waltx  " 

ll!ift>n— The.  UW/:. 

Some  attention  has  been  paid  to  chlorosis: 

Out,  you  green-sickness  carrion !     Out,  you  baggage, 
You  tallow-face ! 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  AH  III ,  ,sV.  V. 

l\ind.    The  pox  upon  her  green  sickness  for  me. 

Hawd.   Faith,  there's  no  way  to  be  rid  on  't,  but  by  the  way  to  the  pox. 

Pericles,  AH  IV.,  ,SV.  VI. 

'24 


PRACTICE    OF    MKIHCINK. 


Tliere's  never  any  of  these  demure  boys  come  to  any  proof;  for  thin  drink 
doth  so  overcool  their  blood,  and  making  many  fish-meals,  that  they  fall  into 
a  kind  of  male  green  sickness  ;  they  are  generally  fools  and  cowards. 

IV—  2d,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 


Lepidus, 

Since  Pompey's  feast,  as  Menas  says,  is  troubled 
With  the  green  sickness. 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  ///.,  »SV.  JJ. 

Urn  .Innsnn  in  writing  ol'tliis  disease  has  happily  and  properly 
di'd  marriage  as  an  important  step  toward  recovery. 

Me  would  keep  you    *    *    *    not  alone  without  a  husband, 
Itiit  with  a  sickness  :  ay.  and  the  ^reen  sickness, 
The  maiden's  malady  ;  which  is  a  sickness.  — 
A  kind  <>f  a  dUe;,  -  ;       ; 

Ami  like  the  tisli  mir  mariners  call 


I  say  rcmora, 

For  it  will  stay  a  ship  that's  under  sail  : 
And  stays  are  long  and  tedious  things  to  maids  ! 
And  maids  arc  young  ships  that  would  hi-  sailing 
When  they  be  rigg'd.  * 

The  stay  U  dangerous. 

1  can  assure  you  from  the  doctor's  month. 
She  lias  a  drop>y,  and  must  change  the  air 
Before  she  can  recover. 

(Jive  her  vent. 

If  she  do  swell.     A  gimblet  must  be  hud  : 
It  is  a  tympanites  she  i>  troubled  with. 
There  are  three  kinds  :  the  first  is  anasaica. 
Tudcr  the  tlesh  a  tumor  :  that's  not  hers. 
The  second  is  ascites,  or  a<|iiosus, 
A  watery  humour  ;  that  is  not  hers  neither  ; 
But  tympanites,  which  we  call  the  drum, 
A  wind-bombs  in  her  belly,  must  be  unbraced. 
And  with  a  faucet  or  a  peg,  let  out. 
\nd  she'll  do  well  :  gt't  her  a  husband. 

Maimrtifi  Lailit,  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

My  nose  fell  a-bleeding  on  Black-Monday  last. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  II.,  Sc.  V. 

Diseases  of  the  respiratory  system  were  quite  overlooked  by 

Shakespeare. 

Consumption  catch  thee ! 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  HI. 

25 


MKDTCAL    TWHCUTS    OK    STI A  K  KST'KA  HE. 

There's  hell,  there's  darkness,  there  is  the  sulphurous  pit,  burning,  scalding, 
stench,  consumption ! 

Kiny  Lc«>\  AH  TV.,  Sc.   YL 

Thy  food  is  such 
As  has  been  belch'd  on  by  infected  lungs. 

/Vr/Wr.s,  Art  IV.,  ,Sr.    VI. 

I'.ut  I'm  relapsing  into  metaphysics. 
That  liibyriiitli.  whose  clue  is  of  the  same 
Construction  as  your  cures  for  hectic  phthisics. 
Those  bright  moths  lintterin.u  round  a  dyinjjr  tlaine. 

Jiyron — Don  ./nan,  <''<fn/»  XII,   IV/w  LXXII. 

Love  is  riotous,  but  mairiajre  should  have  quiet, 
And,  being  Consumptive,  live  on  a  milk  diet. 

lii/rou — Don  Jinin.  Canto  AT.,    IV/w  XL1. 

For  goodness,  growing  to  a  plurisy, 
Dies  in  his  own  too-much. 

Ifttiiilct,  AH  IV.,  ,SV-.   VII. 

A  whoreson  cold,  sir;  a  cough,  sir;  which  I  caught  with  ringing  in  the 
king's  affairs,  upon  his  coronation  day. 

I  loin/  IV—  2rf,  Act  1 1 1.,  Sc.  //. 

'Tis  dangerous  to  take  a  cold. 

Henry  IV.,  Art  //.,  ,SV-.  ///. 

Tlie  tailor  cries,  and  falls  into  a  cough. 

MidxH miner  Xif/hfx  Dream,  Aci  //.,  ,SV-.  /. 

Cou.irhs  will  (X)ine  when  si.t;hs  depart. 

Jii/roii — Don  .Jnun,  Oinfo  A'..   IVrxe  I'll  I. 

\Vlio,    *    *    *    but  would  much  rather 

Si.yh  like  liis  son,  than  cough  like  his  trrandfather? 

Byron — Dun  . f IKIII,  CinifoX.,   IV'w  17. 

He  has  not  forgotten  the  diseases  affecting  the  digestive  organs. 

An  old  superstition  regarding  toothache  was  that  it  was  caused 
by  a  small  worm,  formed  like  an  eel,  which  bored  a  hole  into  the 
tooth,  and  various  methods  were  employed  to  remove  it.  D\cr 
notes  the  fact  that  John  of  Gratisden,  one  of  the  oldest  medical 
authorities,  attributed  decay  of  the  teeth  to  this  cause. 

.Don  Pedro.  What!  sigh  for  the  toothache  ? 
IA '<>n.  Where  is  but  a  humour  or  a  worm  ? 

Mur/i  A >/o.  Ad  ///.,  Sc.  II. 

He  that  sleeps  feels  not  the  toothache. 

Ciiniheline.  Act    ]'.,  ,SV>.  IV. 


<>F    MKhH'INE. 

Being  troubled  with  a  raging  tooth, 
I  could  not  sleep. 

OtJieUo,  Act  III.,  Sc.  III. 

There  was  never  yet  philosopher, 

That  could  endure  the  toothache  patiently. 

Much  Ado,  AH  V.,  Sc.  L 

She  shall  be  buried  with  her  face  upwards; 
Yet  tliis  is  no  charm  lor  the  toothache. 

M  iidi  A  ilo,  Act  HI.,  Sc.  IL 

Hi- nt\   I  have  the  toothache. 
/).   ll«l,-n.   Draw  it. 

Much  Ado,  Act  III.,  Sc.  //. 

Things  sweet  to  taste  prove  in  digestion  sour. 

Itidmrd  II.,  Art  T,Se.  III. 

A  surfeit  of  the  sweetest  things 

The  deepest  loathing  to  the  stomach  brings. 

Midsummer  Mi/hl's  DITIIIH,  AH  II.,  Sc.  II. 

Like  a  sickness,  did  I  loath  this  food: 

Hut.  as  in  health,  come  to  my  natural  taste, 

Now  do  I  wish  it,  love  it,  long  for  it. 

Mid *i<  in  UK  r  Mi/lit'*  /)rc(i  in,  .Id  II' ,  Sc.  /. 

She  gallops  night  hy  night.     *     * 
•::•          -:;-          *          -:;-          *          *  *  -x- 

()<-i  ladies  lips,  who  straight  on  kisses  dream; 
Which  ol't  the  angry  Mab  with  blisters  plagues, 
Because  their  breaths  with  sweetmeats  tainted  are. 

h' OHKO  <t nd  Juliet,  Act  /.,  Sc.  IV. 

I 'at  paunches  have  lean  pates,  and  dainty  bits 
Make  rich  the  ribs,  but  bankrupt  quite  the  wits. 

Lore'*  Labour'*  Loxf,  Act  /. ,  Sc.  I. 

Say,  can  you  fast  ?     Your  stomachs  are  too  young; 
And  abstinence  engenders  maladies. 

Lmr'x  Labour'*  Lout,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

I'luiuiet  meals  make  ill  digestions. 

Coined})  of  Errors,  Act  F.,  Sc.  I. 

A  sick  man's  appetite,  who  desires  most  that 

Which  would  increase  his  evil. 

Coriolanus,  Act  I.,  Sc.  I. 

Do  not  turn  me  about;  my  stomach  is  not  constant. 

Tempest,  Act  If.,  Sc.  II. 


MKDK'AL    TIIOrr.HTS    OF    8HAKE8PEAKE. 

For.  ever  and  anon  comes  indigestion. 

lii/ron — Dun  Juan.  Can/o  XI..    \'<  rxr  III. 

When  a  roast  and  a  ragout, 

And  tisli  and  soup,  by  some  side-dishes  back'd. 
Can  give  us  either  pain  or  pleasure,  who 
Would  pique  himself  on  intellects,  whose  use 
Depends  so  much  upon  the  gastric  juice? 

Ili/ron— Don  Jnati,  Canto  V..   \'rr#( 'XXXII. 

He  ate  and  he  was  well  supplied  ;  and  she 
Who  watch'd  him  like  a  mother,  would  have  fed 
Him  past  all  bounds,  because  she  smiled  to  see. 
Such  appetite  in  one  she  had  deem'd  dead  : 
But  Zoe,  being  older  than  Haidee, 
Knew  (by  tradition,  for  she  ne'er  had  read), 
That  famish'd  people  must  be  slowly  nursed. 
And  fed  by  spoonfuls,  else  they  always  burst. 

Ili/ron — J>un  Jnan.  Canto  II..   I Vw  ('].  VIII. 

Why  look  you  pale? 
Seasick,  I  think,  coining  from  Muscovy. 

Lore'*  Labour's  Lout,  AH  V.,  *SV.  II. 

The  shepherd's  daughter    "  who  began  to  be  much  seasick. 

Winter**  Tale,  AH  V.,  8c.  II. 


the  impatient  wind  blew  half  a  gale  : 


High  dash'd  the  spray,  the  bows  dipp'd  in  the  sea. 
And  seasick  passengers  turn'd  somewhat  pale. 

Ili/ron — Don  Juan.  Canto  A'..   IVr.w  I. XI  I'. 

Now  we've  reached  her,  lo  !  the  captain, 
(Jallant  Kidd,  commands  the  crew  : 
Passengers  their  berths  are  clapt  in. 
Sonic  to  grumble,  some  to  spew. 

"  Help  !"— "  a  couplet  ?"— "  no,  a  cup 

Of  warm  water." 
"  What's  the  matter?" 
"  Zounds  !  my  liver  's  coming  up  : 
I  shall  not  survive  the  racket 
Of  this  brutal  Lisbon  Packet." 

Love  's  a  capricious  power  ;  I've  known  it  hold 
Out  through  a  fever  caused  by  its  own  heat. 
Hut  be  much  puzzled  by  a  cough  or  cold, 
And  find  a  quinsy  very  hard  to  treat ; 
Against  all  noble  maladies  he  's  bold, 
Hut  vulgar  illnesses  don't  like  to  meet, 
Nor  that  a  sneeze  should  interrupt  his  sigh. 
Nor  inflammations  redden  his  blind  eye. 
Hut  worst  of  all  it's  nausea,  or  a  pain 
About  the  lower  regions  of  the  bowels  : 
Love  who  heroically  breathes  a  vein, 
Shrinks  from  the  application  of  hot  towels. 
* 

28 


OF    MEDICINE. 


And  pnr.irativev  arc  dangerous  to  his 
Seii>iekiiess  death. 

Ht/ron  —  Doii  JHIIII.  Cttnfo  II..   \'rrw.  XXII. 

Like  wind  compress'  d  and  pent  within  a  bladder. 
(  >r  like  a  human  eolie  \\hieli  is  sadder. 

lli/rnn  —  \'itii(ni  of  Jt«l(jinc)it. 

When  will  ynnr  c<iMsli|iati<)M  have  done,  .uood  inadame? 

Oartwriffht, 

Disc-uses  of  the  secretory  system  have  not  escaped  his  eagle 

eye. 

A  I'at  old  man  that  swoln  parcel  of  dropsies. 

Henri/  I}'.,  AH  1  1.,  He.  IV. 

The  dropsy  drown  this  fool  ! 


t,  .let  IV.,  /SV-.  /. 

It  is  a  dropsied  honour. 

.l//'s  Well,  Act  //.,  ,SV-.  ///. 

/•'<//.     You  make  fat  rascals,  mistress  Doll. 

Doll.    1  make  them  !  gluttony  and  disease  make  them. 

Itniri/  IV—  ^l,  Act  //.,  ,SV.  IV. 

Leprosy  was  sometimes  called  measles,  from  the  French  of 
leper,  im-xt'nu  or  ntwl.  This  is  the  sense  in  which  Shakespeare 
uses  the  word  measles  —  an  entirely  different  one  from  that  now 
in  voo-ue.  The  word  --Imar,"  occurring  in  several  of  the  quota- 
tions. refers  to  the  white  spots  so  characteristic  of  the  disease. 

As  for  my  country  I  have  shed  my  hlood, 
Not  fearing  outward  force,  so  shall  my  lungs 
Coin  words  till  their  decay  against  those  measles, 
Which  we  disdain  should  tetter  us,  yet  sought 
The  very  way  to  catch  them. 

Coriolunuft,  Act  III.,  tic.  I. 

Cold!     *     «     *     *     *     * 

This  yellow  slave  will  make  the  hoar  leprosy  ador'd. 

Ti  1110,1  of  A  tin-  us,  Act  ir.,8c.  III. 

Hoar  the  flamen, 

That  scolds  against  the  quality  of  flesh, 
And  not  believes  himself. 

Tiinoti  of  At/leu*,  Act  /('.,  ,SV-.  III. 

Itches,  blains, 
Sow  all  the  Athenian  bosoms,  and  their  crop 

Be  general  leprosy  ! 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  IV.,  S<\  I. 

29 


MKDK'AI.    TIIOI  '<illTS    OF    SlI  A  K  KSl'KA  I!  K. 

Diseased  nature  oi't  lines  breaks  forth 

In  strange  eruptions. 

I  lean/  IV.,  Act  ///.,  ,SV.    /. 

For  thine  own  bowels,  which  do  call  thee  sire, 
The  mere  etl'usion  of  thy  proper  loins, 
Do  curse  the  gout,  xcipiyu,  aiid  the  rheum, 
For  ending  thee  no  sooner. 

Measure  for  Mcusuir,  AH  III.,  Sc.  I. 

Now  the  dry  seripgo  on  the  subject  ! 

Troilnx  anil  Craw'tlti,  AH  //.,  Sc.   ///. 

A  tailor  might  scratch  her  where  'er  she  did  itch. 

l,  AH  //.,  ,SV.  .//. 


In  the  midland  counties  of  England  a  pimple  was  frequently 
called  "a  quat." 

I  have  rubb'd  this  young  quat  almost  to  a  sense, 

And  he  grows  angry. 

OllieUo.  AH  F.,  ,SV-.  /. 

Rubbing  the  poor  itch, 

Make  yourselves  scabs 

Corioldiiux,  AH  /.,  »SV.  /. 

I  would  thou  didst  itch  from  head  to  foot,  and  I  had  the  scratching  of  thee  ; 
I  would  make  thee  the  loathsomest  scab  in  Greece. 

Troilux  and  Crcsxidu,  AH  //.,  Sc.   /. 

My  elbow  itched  ;  I  thought  there  would  a  scab  follow. 

Much  Ado,  AH  III.,  Sc.  Iff. 

Scratching  her  legs  that  one  shall  swear  she  bleeds. 

Taming  of  Hie  ,s'///v/r,  I  ml.,  Nr.  //. 

Full  of  unpleasing  blots  and  sightless  stains. 

Kiny  John,  AH  III.,  Sc.  I. 

Dro.  *S.  She  sweats  —  a  man  may  go  over  shoes  in  the  grime  of  it. 
Ant.  S.   That's  a  fault  that  water  will  mend. 
Dro.  N.   No,  sir,  'tis  in  grain. 

Comedy  of  Error*.  .  i  H  III.  .  Sc.  II. 

I  had  rather  heat  my  liver  with  drinking. 

An/out/  ami  C/t'ojxtfra,  AH  /.,  »•.   //. 

Let  my  liver  rather  heat  with  wine, 

Than  my  heart  cool  with  mortifying  groans. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  AH  /.,  ,SV.  7. 

30 


1»R.«'TICK    OF    .MET)  1C  INK. 

Were  my  wife's  liver 
Infected  as  her  life,  she  would  not  live 
The  running  of  one  glass. 

Winter'*  Talc,  Act  /.,  ,SV.  //. 

What  grief  hath  set  the  jaundice  on  your  cheeks? 

Troilttx  and  (1rexxi(la,  Act  I.,  Sc.  III. 

All  seems  infected  that  the  infected  spy, 
And  all  seems  yellow  to  the  jaundiced  eye. 

The  liver  is  the  la/aivt  of  bile, 

I'.ut  very  rarely  executes  its  function. 

For  the  first  passion  stays  there  such  a  while 

That  all  the  rest  creep  in  and  form  a  junction. 

Like  knots  of  vipers  on  a  dunghill's  soil, 

lia.ue.  fear.  hate,  jealousy,  revenue,  compunction, 

So  that  all  mischiefs  spring  up  from  this  eiitrail. 

Like  earthquakes  from  the  hidden  tire  call'd  "  central." 

liin-un—ltni,  .Inn,,,  Canto  III.,   IVr.se  ('('XV. 

The  examination  of  the  urine  as  an  aid  to  diagnosis  has  been 
resorted  to  lor  many  centuries,  but  the  processes  of  to-day  are,  of 
course,  vast  ly  dili'civnt  from  and  hardly  to  be  compared  with  those 
of  earlier  times,  when  blind  ignorance  caused  urine-examining,  or 
••  water-casting"  to  lie  a  mere  mockery.  The  practice,  says  Dr. 
Bueknill,  arose  "  like  the  barber  surgery,  from  the  ecclesiastical 
intenlics  upon  the  medical  vocations  of  the  clergy.  Priests  and 
monks,  being  unaMe  to  visit  their  former  patients,  are  said  first 
to  have  resorted  to  the  expedient  of  divining  the  malady,  and 
directing  the  treatment  upon  simple  inspection  of  the  urine." 
The  College  of  Physicians,  in  an  old  statute,  denounced  it  as  be- 
longing only  to  charlatans,  and  members  were  not  allowed  to  give 
advice  on  inspection  only.  Shakespeare  has  frequently  referred 
to  it.  as  have  also  many  others  of  the  old  writers,  who  condemn 
stronglv  what  was  then  a  shallow  deception,  but  what  has  now 
become,  by  the  light  of  knowledge,  one  of  the  most  important 
diagnostic  aids  to  many  diseases. 

Jfoxf.   Thou  art  a  Ciistilian,  king  urinal ! 

Pardon,  a  word,  monsieur,  mock-water. 
Dr.  Ctiiit*.   Mock-vater !  vat  is  d at? 

Merry  H'/Yrx.  Act  //.,  ,SV-.  ///. 

If  thou  could'st,  doctor,  cast 
The  water  of  my  land,  find  her  disease, 

31 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

And  purge  it  to  a  sound  and  pristine  health, 
I  would  applaud  thee  to  the  very  echo. 

Macbeth.  Act  r.,  Sc.  in. 

Carry  his  water  to  the  wise  woman. 

Tircffth  JSViy//?,  AH  III.,  tic.  IV. 

Falstaff.  What  says  the  doctor  to  my  water? 

Page.  He  said,  sir,  the  water  itself  was  a  good  healthy  water;  but,  for  the 
party  that  owed  it,  he  might  have  more  diseases  than  he  knew  for. 

Henry  IV—  2<7,  Ad  /.,  tic.  //. 

Others,  when  the  bagpipe  sings  i'  the  nose 
Cannot  contain  their  urine:  for  affection, 
Master  of  passion,  sways  it  to  the  mood 
Of  what  it  likes  or  loathes. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  IV.,  tic.  I. 

Macd.  What  three  things  does  drink  especially  provoke  ? 
Port.    Marry,  sir,  nose-painting,  sleep,  and  urine. 

Macbeth,  Act  II.,  tic.  II. 

When  he  makes  water,  his  urine  is  congealed  ice. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  III.,  tic.  II. 

Fevers  and  other  general  diseases  are  often  referred  to  and 
very  many  excellent  allusions  have  been  made  to  them. 

He  is  so  shaked  of  a  burning  quotidian  tertian,  that  it  is  most  lamentable 
to  behold. 

Henry  V.,  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

If  all  the  wine  in  my  bottle  will  recover  him,  I  will  help  his  ague. 

Tempest,  Act  II.,  Sc.  II. 

A  lunatic  lean-witted  fool, 
Presuming  on  an  ague's  privilege, 
Dar'st  with  thy  frozen  admonition 
Make  pale  our  cheek  ;  chasing  the  royal  blood, 
With  fury,  from  his  native  residence 

Richard  II.,  Act  II.,  tic.  I. 

But  now  will  canker  sorrow  eat  my  bud, 
And  chase  the  native  beauty  from  his  cheek, 
And  he  will  look  as  hollow  as  a  ghost, 
As  dim  and  meagre  as  an  ague's  fit. 
And  so  he'll  die. 

King  John,  Act  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

Here  let  them  lie  till  famine  and  the  ague  eat  them  up. 

Macbeth,  Act  V.,  tic.   V. 

32 


THJ<J 


as; 


^<7.r'' 

PRACTICE    OF    MEDICINE. 

An  untimely  ague 
Stay'd  me  a  prisoner  in  my  chamber. 

Henry  VIII.,  Act  /.,  Sc.  I. 
My  wind  would  blow  me  to  an  ague. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  I.,  Sc.  I. 

He  had  a  fever  when  he  was  in  Spain, 

And,  when  the  tit  was  on  him,  I  did  mark 

How  he  did  shake  ;  'tis  true,  this  god  did  shake  : 

His  coward  lips  did  from  their  colour  fly ; 

And  that  same  eye  whose  bend  did  awe  the  world 

I  )id  lose  his  lustre :  I  did  hear  him  groan  : 

Ay.  and  that  tongue  of  his,  that  bade  the  Romans 

Mark  him,  and  write  his  speeches  in  their  books, 

.|///N  .'   it  cried.  Cin-  UK  some  drink,  Titinius, 

As  a  sick  girl. 

Julius  Orw/r,  Aft  I.,  Sc.  II. 

Home  without  boots,  and  in  foul  weather  too! 
How  'scapes  he  agues? 

Henri/  IV.,  Act  III.,  Sc.  L 

Danger,  like  an  ague,  subtly  taints 
Kven  then  when  we  sit  idly  in  the  sun. 

Troilii*  ami  Crcuxida,  Act  III.,  Se.  III. 

All  the  infections  that  the  sun  sucks  up 

From  bogs,  fens,  flats,  on  Prosper  fall,  and  make  him 

My  inch-meal  a  disease  ! 

Ti'iiiiH'xf.  Act  II.,  Se.  II. 

It  is  not  for  your  health  thus  to  commit 
Your  weak  condition  to  the  raw  cold  morning. 

J i< Hit*  Cstxar,  Act  II'.,  Sc.  I. 

I  asked  the  doctors  after  his  disease- 
He  died  of  the  slow  fever  called  the  tertian. 
And  left  his  widow  to  her  own  aversion. 

Byron— Drm  Juan,  Canto  I.,  Verse  XXXIV. 

His  feelings  had  not  those  strange  (its,  like  tertians 
of  common  likings,  which  make  some  deplore 
What  they  should  laugh  at— the  mere  ague  still 
( if  men's  regards,  the  fever  or  the  chill. 

Rtirtm— Don  .1  turn.  Canto  XIII.,  Verse  XVII. 

has  b'een  alluded  to  frequently,  but  generally  only 
the  symptoms  of  carbuncles  and  the  petechise  are  mentioned. 
As  the  latter  only  occur  in  very  bad  cases,  they  were  called 
"  God's  tokens,"  and  their  appearance  denoted  a  fatal  termina- 

33 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

tion  of  the  disease.     Hence  the  home  of  the  patient  was  closed 
and  "  Lord  have  mercy  on  us  "  placed  upon  the  door. 

Write  Lord  have  mercy  on  us  on  those  three ; 

They  are  iufected,  in  their  hearts  it  lies; 

They  have  the  plague  and  caught  it  of  your  eyes. 

Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  V.,  Sc.  //. 

He  is  so  plaguy-proud,  that  the  death  tokens  of  it  cry — 
No  recovery. 

Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 

Enolarbus.  How  appears  the  fight? 

On  our  side  like  the  token'd  pestilence, 
Where  death  is  sure 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  III.,  Sc.  X. 

Now  the  red  pestilence  strike  all  trades  in  Rome, 
And  occupations  perish ! 

Coriolanus,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  /. 

The  searchers  of  the  town, 
Suspecting  that  we  both  were  in  a  house 
Where  the  infectious  pestilence  did  reign, 
Sealed  up  the  doors  and  would  not  let  us  forth. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  V.,  Sc.  77. 
Thou  art  a  boil, 

A  plague  sore,  an  embossed  carbuncle, 
In  my  corrupted  blood. 

King  Lear,  Act  //.,  Sc.  IV. 

Boils  and  plagues 

Plaster  you  o'er ;  that  you  may  be  abhorr'd 
Further  than  seen,  and  one  infect  another 
Against  the  wind  a  mile ! 

Coriolanus,  Act  L,  Sc.  IV. 

Men  take  diseases,  one  of  another : 

Therefore,  let  men  take  heed  of  their  company. 

Henry  IV— Id,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 
Being  sick     *    *    *    *    *    * 
And  as  the  wretch,  whose  fever-weaken 'd  joints, 
Like  strengthless  hinges,  buckle  under  life. 

Henry  IV— 2d,  Act  /.,  Sc.  L 

We  are  all  diseas'd  ;  and 
**•        *****••          •::- 

Have  brought  ourselves  into  a  burning  fever, 
And  we  must  bleed  for  it. 

Henry  IV— Zd,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  /. 

34 


PRACTICE    OF    MEDICINE. 

This  fever,  that  hath  troubled  me  so  long, 

Lies  heavy  on  me.  • 

This  tyrant  fever  burns  me  up, 

And  will  not  let  me  welcome  this  good  news. 

King  John,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

What's  a  fever  but  a  fit  of  madness? 

Comedy  of  Errors,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

At  this  instant  he  is  sick,  my  lord, 
Of  a  strange  fever. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

My  heart  beats  thicker  than  a  feverous  pulse. 

T roil  it*  and  Cressida,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Sickness  is  catching. 

Mi  (I  xii  miner  Night's  Dream,  Act  /.,  Sc.  I. 

Thus  saith  the  preacher  :  "  Nought   beneath  the  sun, 
lvne\\."  yet  -till  from  change  to  change  we  run  : 
What  varied  \\onders  tempt  us  as  they  pass! 
Tin  C0te-poc,  lraetm>,  .yalvanisin.  Mild  gas, 
In  turns  appear,  to  make  the  vulgar  stare, 
Till  the  swoln  bubble  bursts— and  all  is  air  ! 

II iii-oii  —  Kni/.  Hard*  uii'l  Scotch  /icr/m-m?. 

Vaccination  certainly  has  been 
A  kind  antithesis  to  Coiigrevc's  rockets. 
With  which  the  Doctor  paid  oil'  an  old  pox. 
By  borrowing  a  new  one  from  an  ox 

r,(ir<ni  —  l)on  -Inn ii.  ('unto  I.,   IVw  ('XXIX. 

\  don't  know  how  it  was,  but  he  grew  sick  : 

The  empress  was  alarm' d,  and  her  physician 

(The  same  u  ho  physick'd  1'eten,  found  the  tick 

Of  his  tierce  pulse  betoken  a  condition 

Which  augur' d  of  the  dead,  however  (jiiick 

Itself,  and  show'd  a  feverish  disposition  ; 

At  which  the  whole  court  was  extremely  troubled, 

The  sovereign  sliock'd.  and  all  his  medicines  doubled. 

Low  were  the  whispers,  manifold  the  rumours  : 

Some  said  he  had  been  poison'd  by  Potemkin  ; 

Others  talked  learnedly  of  certain  tumours, 

Kxhaustion,  or  disorders  of  the  same  kin  ; 

Some  said  'twas  a  concoction  of  the  humours, 

With  which  the  blood  too  readily  will  claim  kin  ; 

( >t  hers  again  were  ready  to  maintain, 

••  'Twas  only  the  fatigue  of  last  campaign." 

But  here  is  one  prescription  out  of  many* 

••  Snd;e-sulphat.  3.  VI.  3-  S.  mannse  optim. 

Aq.  fervent.  K.  3.  i«<.  3-  ij  tinct.  sennse 

llaiistus,"  (aud  here  the  surgeon  came  and  cupp'd  him), 

K.  Pulv.  com.  gr  iii.  Ipecacuanha;," 

i  With  more  besides,  if  Juan  had  not  stopp'd  'em). 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OP    SHAKE8PEARE. 

"  Bolus  potassa-  sulphuret.  sunu'iKlus, 
Et  haustus  ter  in  die  capiendus." 
This  is  the  way  physicians  mend  or  end  us 
Secundum  artem.    *    *    *    *    * 

Bin-on-- l)<»i  Juan,  Canto  X.,  lV;/>v  X X X 1 X . 

Rheumatic  diseases  do  abound  : 

Aud  through  this  distemperature,  we  see 

The  seasons  alter. 

Midsummer  NiyJifs  Dream,  Act  77. ,  *Sr.  /. 

This  raw  rheumatic  day. 

Merry  Wives,  Act  III.,  Sc.  ]. 

Is  Brutus  sick,— and  is  it  physical 

To  walk  unbraced,  and  suck  up  humours 

Of  the  dank  morning?     What,  is  Brutus  sick, 

And  will  he  steal  out  of  his  wholesome  bed, 

To  dare  the  vile  contagion  of  the  night, 

And  tempt  the  rheuma  and  unpurged  air 

To  add  unto  his  sickness? 

Julius  Cu'tnn;  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

Is  this  the  poultice  for  my  aching  bones? 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Ad  II..  ,S'c.   V. 

A  coming  shower  your  shooting  corns  presage, 
Ohl  aches  mill  throb,  your  hollow  tooth  will  rage. 

Swi/t. 

Yet  am  I  better 

Than  one  that's  sick  o'  the  gout,  since  he  had  rather 
Groan  so  in  perpetuity,  than  be  cur'd 
By  the  sure  physician,  death. 

Ci/iiiheline,  Act  V.,  Sc.  IT. 

A  rich  man  that  hath  not  the  gout. 

As  You  Like  //,  Act  III.,  ,SV.  II. 
„  His  grace  was  rather  pained 
With  some  slight,  light,  hereditary  twinges 
Of  gout,  which  rusts  aristocratic  hinges. 

Huron— Doit  Juan.  Canto,  XVI. ,    IVm-  A'A'AV  I'. 
It  is  a  hard,  although  a  common  case, 
To  find  our  children  running  restive— they 
In  whom  our  brightest  days  we  would  retrace, 
Our  little  selves  reform'd  in  finer  clay  ; 
Just  as  old  age  is  creeping  on  apace, 
And  clouds  come  o'er  the  sunset  of  our  day, 
They  kindly  leave  us,  though  not  quite  alone, 
But  in  good  company— the  gout  and  stone. 

Huron— Don  Juan,  Canto  III.,    !>-/•*   I. IX. 
Life's  thin  thread  's  spun  out 
Between  the  gaping  heir  and  gnawing  gout. 

Hilfon— Don  Juan.  Canto  XI J /.,   J'r/>r  XL. 

36 


PRACTICE    OF    MEDICINE. 

Dear  lioiu-st  Ned  is  in  tin-  gout, 
Lies  nicked  with  jiain,  and  you  without  : 
How  patiently  you  hear  him  groan  ! 
How  glad  the  case  is  not  your  o\\  n  ! 

Yet  should  some  neighbor  leel  a  pain 
.lust  in  tin-  paits  where  I  complain, 
How  many  a  message  would  he  send  ! 
\\  hat  hearty  prayers  that  I  should  mend  ! 
Inquire  what  regimen  I  kept? 
What  gave  me  ease,  and  how  I  slept  ? 
And  more  lament  when  I  was  dead, 
Than  all  my  snivellers  round  my  bed. 

Swift-"  Death  of  Ih:  Siriff 

Diseases  of  the  absorbent  system  are  well  represented  by 
scrofula,  or  "  King's  evil,"  as  it  was  known  in  Shakespeare's  time. 
This  disease,  so  called  on  account  of  the  supposed  power  of  cure 
being  invested  in  the  handling  and  prayers  of  the  king,  was  first 
so  treated  by  Kdwurd  the  Confessor,  in  1058,  and  by  all  the  suc- 
ceeding rulers  until  William  III.,  who  refused.  Queen  Anne  re- 
sumed the  practice.  l>ut  King  George  I,  put  an  end  to  it.  Dur- 
ing the  twenty  years  following  1662  upwards  of  100,000  persons 
were  touched  tor  the  malady. 

Malcolm.   Comes  the  king  forth  I  pray  you? 

Doctor.      Ay,  sir;  there  are  a  crew  of  wretched  souls 
That  stay  his  cure;  their  malady  convinces 
The  great  assay  of  art ;  but,  at  his  touch, 
Such  sanctity  hath  heaven  given  his  hand, 
They  presently  ameud. 

Mn  f  col  in.  I  thank  you,  doctor. 

Mticrt i({}\    "What's  the  disease  he  means? 

M<i/cnfiii.  Tis  call'd  the  evil 

A  most  miraculous  work  in  this  good  king : 
"Which  often,  since  my  here-remain  in  England, 
I  have  seen  him  do.     How  he  solicits  heaven, 
Himself  best  knows:  but  strangely-visited  people, 
All  swoln  and  ulcerous,  pitiful  to  the  eye, 
The  mere  despair  of  surgery,  he  cures  ; 
Hanging  a  golden  stamp  about  their  necks, 
Put  on  with  holy  prayers  ;  and  'tis  spoken, 
To  the  succeeding  royalty  he  leaves 
The  healing  benediction. 

Macbeth,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

On  the  action  of  medicines  he  has  given  us  abundant  cause  to 

37 


.MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEAKK. 

think  he  was  much  better  informed  than  the  average  man  of  his 
time. 

Cleo.  Give  me  to  drink  mandragora 
Char.  Why,  madam e  ? 

Cleo.  That  I  might' sleep  out  this  great  gap  of  time, 
My  Antony  is  away. 

Antony  <uid  Cleopatra,  Act  /.,  /SV-.   V. 

Not  poppy,  nor  mandragora, 
Nor  all  the  drowsy  syrups  of  the  world, 
Shall  ever  med'cine  thee  to  that  sweet  sleep 
Which  thou  ow'dst  yesterday. 

Othello,  AH  ///.,, SV-.  ///. 

Cupid's  cup 

With  the  first  draught  intoxicates  apace — 
A  quintessential  laudanum  or  "  black  drop  " 
Which  makes  one  drunk  at  once,  without  the  base 
Kxpedient  of  full  bumpers. 

n  JiKtu.  Canto  IX,.   !V'/w  LXVII. 


-like  an  opiate  which  brings  troubled  rest, 


<  >r  none, 

Byron — Don  Juan,  ('(into  XVI.,  IV/w  X 

The  drug  he  gave  me,  which,  he  sai<l,  was  precious 
And  cordial  to  me,  have  I  not  found  it 
Murderous  to  the  senses? 

Cymbelhie,  AH  IV.,  ,SV.  77. 

Have  we  eaten  of  the  insane  root, 
That  takes  the  reason  prisoner  ? 

Macbeth,  Act  L,Sc.  III. 

Commentators  think  that  Shakespeare  found  the  name  of  this 
root  in  Bateman's  Commentary  on  Bartholeme  de  Propriet  Re- 
rum  :  "  Henbane  (Hyoscyamus)  is  called  Insana,  mad,  for  the 
use  thereof  is  perillous ;  for  if  it  be  eate  or  drunke,  it  breedeth 
madnesse,  or  slow  lykenesse  of  sleepe.  Therefore  this  hear!)  is 
called  commonly  Mirilidium,  for  it  taketh  away  wit  and  reason." 

Lih.  XVIL,  Ch.  87. 
Thy  uncle  stole, 

With  juice  of  cursed  hebenon  in  a  vial, 
And  in  the  porches  of  mine  ears  did  pour 
The  leperous  distil ment ;  whose  effect 
Holds  such  an  enmity  with  blood  of  man, 
That,  swift  as  quicksilver,  it  courses  through 
The  natural  gates  and  alleys  of  the  body ; 

38 


VIM 'TICK    OF    MEDICINE. 


And  with  a  sudden  rigour,  it  doth  posset 

And  curd,  like  sour  droppings  into  milk, 

The  thin  and  wholesome  blood  :  so  did  it  mine, 

And  a  most  instant  tetter  bark'd  about, 

Most  lazar-like,  with  vile  and  loathsome  crust, 

All  my  smooth  body. 

Hamlet,  Act  /.,  Sc.  V. 

It  would  indeed  be  interesting  to  know  the  source  of  Shakes- 
peare's knowledge  on  the  physiological  action  of  this  alkaloid  of 
tobacco.  Most  true  it  is  that  he  has  selected  an  excellent  drug 
for  his  purpose  in  taking  up  the  crude  oil — Nicotia  nin  (hebenon). 
Birds  will  full  dead  as  they  approach  it;  one  drop  is  sufficient  to 
kill  a  dog:  and  man  dies  in  from  two  to  five  minutes  after  tak- 
ing a  poisonous  dose:  but  the  drug  produces  death  by  the  failure 
<>f  wxpirtitiint.  not  by  its  direct  action  on  the  blood.  "  In  nicotia- 
poisoning  the  blood  is,  however,  not  perceptibly  affected.  The 
amount  <>f  the  alkaloid  necessary  to  take  life  is  exceedingly 
small,  and  although  death  by  asphyxia  causes  the  vital  fluid  to 
l>c  every  where  dark,  yet  the  microscope  reveals  only  normal 
corpuscles.  Moreover,  Krocker  has  found  that  the  dark  blood 
rapidlv  assumes  an  arterial  hue  when  shaken  in  the  air,  and  that 
its  spectrum  is  normal."  (H.  C.  Wood's  Toxicology,  1882,  p.  370.) 
It  is  thought  by  many  that  Shakespeare  did  not  intend  "heb- 
enon "  to  mean  the  alkaloid  of  tobacco,  and  very  plausible 
arguments  have  been  brought  forward  to  show  that  he  meant 
hebon  or  the  juice  of  the  yew.  Dyer,  in  his  chapter  on  plants, 
u-ives  the  following  extract  of  a  paper  read  by  Rev.  W.  A.  Har- 
rison before  the  New  Shakespeare  Society  in  1882:  "  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  poison  intended  by  the  Ghost  in  'Hamlet,' 
(  I-V.),  when  he  speaks  of  the  'juice  of  cursed  hebenon,'  is  that 
of  the  vcw.  and  is  the  same  as  Marlowe's  'juice  of  hebon.'  (Jew 
of  Malta.  III-IV.)  The  yew  is  called  hebon  by  Spenser  and  by 
other  writers  of  Shakespeare's  age  ;  and  in  its  various  forms  of 
ebcn,  eiben,  hiben,  etc.,  this  tree  is  so  named  in  no  less  than  five 
different  European  languages.  Trom  medical  authorities,  both 
of  ancient  and  modern  times,  it  would  seem  that  the  juice  of  the 
yew  is  a  rapidlv  fatal  poison  ;  next,  that  the  symptoms  attend- 
ing upon  yew-poisoning  correspond,  in  a  very  remarkable  man- 
ner, with  those  which  follow  the  bites  of  poisonous  snakes;  and, 

39 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS   OF   SHAKESPEARE. 

lastly,  that  no  other  poison  but  the  yew  produces  the  "  lazar- 
like  ulcerations  on  the  body,  upon  which  Shakespeare,  in  this 
passage,  lays  so  much  stress."  From  these  arguments  there 
seems  to  be  every  reason  for  believing  that  Shakespeare  did 
mean  the  juice  of  the  yew,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  con- 
tinual harping  on  this  subject,  as  an  evidence  of  his  medical 
ignorance,  will  soon  cease. 

Recovered  again  with  aquavits,  or  some  other  hot  infusion. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  ///. 

I  must  needs  wake  you : 
Alas!  my  lady's  dead!*    *    *     *     * 
Some  aquavitse,  ho ! 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  V. 

The  second  property  of  your  excellent  sherris  is— the  warming  of  the  blood ; 
which,  before  cold  and  settled,  left  the  liver  white  and  pale,  *  *  but  the 
sherris  warms  it,  and  makes  it  course  from  the  inwards  to  the  parts  extreme. 

Henry  IV— Id,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

The  rapidity  with  which  aconite,  in  poisonous  doses,  acts,  is 
forcibly  shown  in  the  comparison  of  it  with  gunpowder. 

A  hoop  of  gold  to  bind  thy  brothers  inj 
That  the  united  vessel  of  their  blood, 
Mingled  with  venom  of  suggestion, 
(As,  force  perforce,  the  age  will  pour  it  in,) 
Shall  never  leak,  though  it  do  work  as  strong 
As  aconitum,  or  rash  gunpowder. 

//<•/,/•//  IV—  2d,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 
Let  me  have 

A  dram  of  poison:  such  soon-speeding  gear 
As  will  disperse  itself  through  all  the  veins, 
That  the  life-weary  taker  may  fall  dead  ; 
And  that  the  trunk  may  be  discharg'd  of  breath 
As  violently,  as  hasty  powder  fir?d 
Doth  hurry  from  the  fatal  cannon's  womb. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

The  curative  properties  of  balm  or  balsam  have  been  known 
and  valued  for  ages  past. 

But,  saying  thus,  instead  of  oil  and  balm, 

Thou  lay'st  in  every  gash  that  love  hath  given  me 

The  knife  that  made  it. 

Ti-oiluit  n-inl  (.YvMxiWrt,  Art  I.,  Sc.  I. 

40 


I'HACTH'K    OF    .MEDICINE. 

Is  tliis  the  balsam  that  the  usuring  senate 
Poms  into  captain's  wounds?     Banishment  ! 

Timoti  of  Atheux,  Act  III.,  Sc.   V, 

My  pity  hath  been  balm  to  heal  their  wounds. 

llnn-i,   l'L—3t1,  Act  IV,  Sc.  III. 

A  solution  of  gold  was  supposed  to  possess  great  medical 
power  :  even  the  actual  contact  of  the  pure  metal,  according  to 
their  In-lit'!',  kept  the  wearer  ever  in  good  health.  Dyer  quotes 
from  John  Wight's  translation  of  the  "Secrets  of  Alexis,"  in 
which  is  given  a  receipt  "to  dissolve  and  reducte  golde  into  a 
potable  licour  which  conserveth  the  youth  and  healthe  of  a  man, 
and  will  heale  ever}1"  disease  that  is  thought  incurable  in  the 
spare  of  seven  daies  at  the  furthest."  The  term  "grand  liquor," 
as  it  appeal's  in  Shakespeare,  refers  to  this  solution. 

Coming  to  look  on  you,  thinking  you  dead, 
And  dead  almost,  my  liege,  to  think  you  were,) 
1  spake  unto  the  crown,  as  having  sense, 
And  thus  upbraided  it  :    The  en  re  on  f/iee  <1<  iiendiriy, 
llntli  fed  iijion  fin  huil  i/  of  my  father  ; 
'/'In  ri t'ore,  flion,  IK  xt  <>f  </<>l<l,  art  worst  of  </ol<l : 
Other,  less  tine  in  eeirtif,  i*  more  jtri'doHs, 
/'rest  rrint/  life  in  iin  <l'ci »<  }><>t<tblc. 

If.nr,/  IV—&1,  Act  IV.,  ,SV.  IV. 

Plutus  himself, 

That  knows  the  tinct  and  multiplying  medicine, 
Hath  not  in  nature's  mystery  more  science 

Than  I  have  in  this  ring. 

.I//'*  Well,  Act  V.,$c.  III. 

Find  this  grand  liquor  that  hath  gilded  'em. 

Tempest,  A  ct  V. ,  Sc.  /. 

We  sicken  to  shun  sickness  when  we  purge. 

Sonnets,  CXV1IL 

What  rhubarb,  senna,  or  what  purgative  drug, 

Would  scour  these  English  hence? 

Macbeth,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

Let's  purge  this  choler  without  letting  blood: 
This  we  prescribe,  though  no  physician  ; 
*»*»****-** 
Our  doctors  say,  this  is  no  month  to  bleed. 

Richard  II.,  Act  L,  Sc.  I. 

41 


MKDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

That  gentle  physic,  given  in  time,  had  cur'd  me ; 
But  now  I  am  past  all 

Henry  VIII.,  Act  IV.,  *SV.  II. 

'Tis  time  to  give  'em  physic,  their  diseases 

Are  grown  so  catching. 

Henry  VIII.,  Act  L.  ,SV.  ///. 

He  brings  his  physic 
After  his  patient's  death. 

Henry  VIII ,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

I  will  not  cast  away  my  physic,  hut  on  those  that  are  sick. 

As  You  Like  It,  Act  III.,  ,SV.  //. 

To  jump  a  body  with  a  dangerous  physic 

That's  sure  of  death  without  it. 

roriolanus,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

Doctors  give  physic  by  way  of  prevention. 

Swift. 

The  ignorant  and  superstitious  were  of  the  opinion  that  poi- 
sons could  be  prepared  so  that  the  effect  could  be  produced  at 
certain  periods  after  their  ingestion.  They  were  also  in  error 
in  the  thought  that  poisons  caused  great  swelling  of  the  body. 

She  did  confess  she  had 

For  you  a  mortal  mineral ;  which,  being  took, 
Should  by  the  minute  feed  on  life,  and,  lingering, 
By  inches  waste  you. 

Cymbeline,  Act  V.,  Sc.  V. 

All  three  of  them  are  desperate  :  their  great  guilt, 
Like  poison  given  to  work  a  great  time  after, 
Now  'gins  to  bite  the  spirits. 

Tempest,  Act  III,  Sc.  III. 

Hubert.     The  king,  I  fear,  is  poison'd  by  a  monk : 
I  left  him  almost  speechless.    *    *    * 

Bastard.  How  did  he  take  it  ?  who  did  taste  to  him  ? 

Hubert.     A  monk,  I  tell  you  ;  a  resolved  villain, 

Whose  bowels  suddenly  burst  out :  the  king 
Yet  speaks,  and,  peradventure,  may  recover. 

King  John,  Act  V.,  Sc.  17. 

You  shall  digest  the  venom  of  your  spleen, 
Though  it  do  split  you  ! 

Julius  Cxxar,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

42 


PRACTICE    OF    MEDICINE. 

Jf  they  had  swallow'd  poison  't  would  appear 
By  external  swelling  :  but  she  looks  like  sleep. 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  V.,  tie.  II. 

K.  John.     There  is  so  hot  a  summer  in  my  bosom, 
That  all  my  bowels  crumble  up  to  dust : 
I  am  a  scribbled  form,  drawn  with  a  pen 
Upon  a  parchment;  and  against  this  fire 
Do  I  shrink  up. 

P.  Henry.,  How  tares  your  majesty  V 
A'.  John.     Poison'd, — ill  fare;  dead,  forsook,  cast  off: 
And  none  of  you  will  bid  the  winter  come, 
To  thrust  his  icy  fingers  in  my  maw ; 
Nor  let  my  kingdom's  rivers  take  their  course 
Through  my  burn'd  bosom;  nor  entreat  the  north 
To  make  his  bleak  winds  kiss  my  parched  lips, 
And  comfort  me  with  cold:  I  do  not  ask  you  much, 
I  beg  cold  comfort ;  and  you  are  so  strait, 
And  so  iugrateful,  you  deny  me  that     *     *     * 
"Within  me  is  a  hell ;  and  there  the  poison 
Is,  as  a  Mend,  confin'd  to  tyrannize 
On  unreprievable  condemned  blood. 

King  John,  Act  V.,  8e.  VII. 

Within  the  infant  rind  of  this  weak  flower 

Poison  hath  residence,  and  medicine  power: 

For  this,  being  smelt,  with  that  part  cheers  each  part; 

Being  tasted,  slays  all  senses  with  the  heart. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 

Like  a  poisonous  mineral,  gnaw  my  inwards. 

Othello,  Act  II ,  K:  I. 

I  bought  an  unction  of  a  mountebank, 
So  mortal,  that  but  dip  a  knife  in  it, 
Where  it  draws  blood  no  cataplasm  so  rare 
Collected  from  all  simples  that  have  virtue 
ruder  the  moon,  can  save  the  thing  from  death 
That  is  but  scratched  withal. 

Hamlet,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  VII. 

A  few  miscellaneous  quotations  referring  to  medical  subjects 
must  here  find  a  place. 

The  more  one  sickens  the  worse  at  ease  he  is. 

As  You  Like  It,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

43 


MEDICAL    THOniHTS    OF    SHAKES  PEA  K  K. 

He  fell  sick  suddenly,  and  grew  so  ill 

He  could  not  sit  his  mule. 

Henry  VIII. ,  Act  IV.,  Se.  If. 

the  sun  is  a  most  glorious  si-: lit. 

I've  seen  him  rise  full  oft,  indeed  oi'  late 
I  have  set  up  on  purpose  all  the  night, 
Which  hastens,  as  physicians  say,  one's  fate  ; 
And  so  all  ye,  who  would  be  in  the  right 
In  health  and  purse,  begin  your  day  to  date 
From  day -break,  and  when  coffin' d  at  fourscore, 
Engrave  upon  the  plate  you  rose  at  four. 

lii/r<>n  —  n<»i  .limn,  ('unto  //.,    l'ow  ('XI.. 

So  much  was  our  love, 

We  would  not  understand  what  was  most  lit ; 
But,  like  the  owner  of  a  foul  disease, 
To  keep  it  from  divulging,  let  it  feed 
Even  on  the  pith  of  life. 

U«,nh<t.  Art  IV.,  X('.    I. 

Diseases  desperate  grown, 
By  desperate  appliance  are  reliev'd 

Or  not  at  all. 

Hamlet,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IIL 

His  dissolute  disease  will  scarce  obey  this  medicine. 

M- rry  Wives,  Act  IIL,  Sc.  III. 

O  vanity  of  sickness !  fierce  extremes, 
In  their  continuance,  will  not  feel  themselves. 
Death,  having  prey'd  upon  the  outward  parts, 
Leaves  them  insensible. 

Kin (j  John,  Act  V.,  $c.   VII. 

What  a  catalogue  have  we  here : 

Now  the  rotten  diseases  of  the  south,  the  guts-griping,  ruptures,  catarrhs, 
loads  o'  gravel  i'  the  back,  lethargies,  cold  palsies,  raw  eyes,  dirt-rotten  livers, 
wheezing  lungs,  bladders  full  of  imposthume,  sciaticas,  lime-kilns  i'  the  palm, 
incurable  bone-ache,  and  the  rivelled  fee-simple  of  tetter,  take  and  take  again 
such  preposterous  discoveries ! 

Troilus  and  Orchid  <i.  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

As  burning  fevers,  agues  pale  and  faint, 
Life- poisoning  pestilence,  and  frenzies  wood, 
The  marrow-eating  sickness,  whose  attaint 
Disorder  breeds  by  heating  of  the  blood  : 
Surfeits,  imposthumes,  grief  and  danm'd  despair, 
Swear  nature's  death  for  framing  thee  so  fair. 

Venus  and  Adonis. 

44 


IMt.VTK'K    OF    .MKDICIXK. 

How  nicely  does  he  describe  the  decay  of  man,  the  second 
childhood,  the  wasting  away  of  the  organism  : 

The  sixth  age  shifts 
Into  the  lean  and  slipper'd  pantaloon, 
With  spectacles  on  nose  and  pouch  on  side; 
His  youthful  hose,  well  sav'd,  a  world  too  wide 
For  his  shrunk  shank;  and  his  big  manly  voice 
Turning  again  towards  childish  treble,  pipes 
And  whistles  in  his  sound.     Last  scene  of  all, 
That  ends  this  strange  eventful  history, 
Is  second  childishness,  and  mere  oblivion, 
Sans  teeth,  sans  eyes,  sans  taste,  sans  everything. 

.1*    You  L /AT  It,  AH.  II.,  Sc.    VII. 

Again  : 

I  >o  you  set  down  your  name  in  the  scroll  of  youth,  that  are  written  down 
old  with  all  the  characters  of  age?  Have  you  not  a  moist  eye?  a  dry  hand? 
a  yellow  cheek?  a  white  heard?  a  decreasing  leg?  an  increasing  belly?  Is 
not  your  voice  broken  ?  your  wind  short?  your  chin  double  ?  your  wit  single  ? 
and  every  part  of  you  hlasted  with  antiquity  :  and  will  you  yet  call  yourself 
young? 

Henry  IV—  2d,  Act  L,  So.  IL 

The  satirical  rogue  says  here,  that  old  men  have  greybeards;  that  their 
faces  are  wrinkled ;  their  eyes  purging  thick  amber  and  plum-tree  gum  ; 
and  that  they  have  a  plentiful  lack  of  wit,  together  with  most  weak  hams. 

Hamlet,  Act  II.,  Sc.  II. 

A  good  leg  will  fall ;  a  straight  back  will  stoop;  a  black  beard  will  turn 
white  :  a  curled  pate  will  grow  bald  :  a  fair  face  will  wither;  a  full  eye  will 
wax  hollow.  *  *  * 

Henry  V.,  Act  V.,  Sc.  II. 

Were  I  hard-favour'd,  foul,  or  wrinkled-old, 
Ill-natnr'd,  crooked,  churlish,  harsh  in  voice, 
O'er  worn,  despised,  rheumatic,  and  cold, 
Thick-sighted,  barren,  lean,  and  lacking  juice, 
Then  might  thou  pause. 

Venus  and  Adonis. 

Let  them  die,  that  age  and  sullens  have  ; 
both  become  the  grave. 

Richard  II.,  Act  //.,  Sc.  I. 

Thus,  methinks,  I  hear  them  speak, 
See,  how  the  Dean  begins  to  break  ! 
Poor  gentleman  !  he  droops  apace  ! 
You  plainly  find  it  in  his  fane. 

That  old  vertigo  in  his  head 

IK 

45 


.MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

Will  never  leave  him.  til!  he's  dead. 
Mesides.  his  memory  decays  : 
He  recollects  not  what  he  says  : 
He  can  not  call  his  friends  to  mind  ; 
Forgets  the  place  where  last  he  dined  : 
Plies  yon  with  stories  o'er  and  o'er ; 
He  told  them  til'ty  times  before. 
How  does  he  fancy  we  can  sit 
To  hear  his  out-of-fashiou  wit? 
But  he  takes  up  with  younger  folks. 
Who  for  his  wine  will  bear  his  jokes. 
Faith,  he  must  make  his  stories  shorter. 
Or  change  his  comrades  once  a  quarter. 

Sirij't—"  Death  of  Dr.  Swtft." 

Thus  Swift  predicted  his  own  end  as  early  as  1731.  History 
mournfully  testifies  that  his  candle  burnt  out  as  he  anticipated. 
"  Fits  of  lunacy  were  succeeded  by  the  dementia  of  old  age.  For 
three  years  he  uttered  only  a  few  words  and  broken  interjections. 
He  would  often  attempt  to  speak,  but  could  not  recollect  words  to 
express  his  meaning,  upon  which  he  would  sigh  heavily.  Babylon 
in  ruins  (to  use  a  simile  of  Addison's),  was  not  a  more  melan- 
choly spectacle  than  this  wreck  of  a  mighty  intellect !  In  speech- 
less silence  his  spirit  passed  away  October  19,  1745."  (Chamber's 
Eng.  Lit.) 

Manhood  declines— age  palsies  every  limb  : 
He  quits  the  scene— or  else  the  scene  quits  him  : 
Scrapes  wealth,  o'er  each  departing  penny  grieves. 
And  avarice  seizes  all  ambition  leaves  : 
Counts  cent,  per  cent.,  and  smiles  or  vainly  frets, 
o'er  hoards  diminished  by  young  Hopeful's  debts  ; 
Weighs  well  and  wisely  what  to  sell  or  buy. 
Complete  in  all  life's  lessons— but  to  die  : 
Peevish  and  spiteful,  doting,  hard  to  please. 
Commending  every  time,  save  times  like  these  : 
('raxed,  querulous,  forsaken,  half  forgot. 
Kxpires  unwept — is  buried — let  him  rot  ! 

lii/roi> — Hint*  j'roni  Horace. 

The  signs  of  a  probable  fatal  termination  are  most  beautifully 
portrayed  by  Shakespeare.  The  death  of  Falstaif  can  not  fail 
to  be  regarded  by  the  profession  as  an  excellent  description  of 
approaching  dissolution. 

'A  made  a  finer  end,  and  went  away,  an  it  had  been  any  christom  child  ; 
'a  parted  even  just  between  twelve  and  one,  even  at  the  turning  of  the  tide: 
for  after  I  saw  him  fumble  with  the  sheets,  and  play  with  flowers,  and  smile 
upon  his  finger's  ends,  I  knew  there  wsis  but  one  way ;  for  his  nose  was  as 
sharp  as  a  pen,  and  'a  babbled  of  green  fields.  *  *  'A  bade  me  lay 

more  clothes  on  his  feet :  I  put  my  hand  into  the  bed  and  felt  them,  and  they 

46 


PRACTICE    OF    MEDICINE. 

• 

were  as  cold  as  any  stone;  then  I  felt  to  his  knees,  and  so  upwards,  and  up- 
wards, and  all  was  as  cold  as  any  stone. 

Henry  V.,  Act  II. ,  Sc.  III. 

( '/arence.         Lord  !  Methonght,  what  pain  it  was  to  drown  ! 
What  dreadful  noise  of  waters  in  mine  ears! 
What  ugly  sights  of  death  within  mine  eyes ! 
-x-####-*### 

Jtriikenlnn-1/.  Had  you  such  leisure  in  the  time  of  death, 

To  gaze  upon  these  secrets  of  the  deep? 
Clarence.         Methonght  I  had  ;  for  still  the  envious  flood 
Kept  in  my  soul  and  would  not  let  it  forth 
To  seek  the  empty,  vast,  and  wand'ring  air  ; 
But  smother'd  it  within  my  panting  bulk, 
Which  almost  hurst  to  belch  it  in  the  sea. 

Richard  III.,  Act  I.  Sc.  IV. 
How  oft  when  men  are  at  the  point  of  death, 
Have  they  been  merry  !  which  their  keepers  call 
A  lightning  before  death. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

Out,  alas !  she's  cold ; 

Her  blood  is  settled,  and  her  joints  are  stiff; 
Life  and  these  lips  have  long  been  separated : 
Death  lies  on  her  like  an  untimely  frost 
Upon  the  sweetest  flower  of  all  the  field. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  V. 

Do  you  notice 

How  much  her  grace  is  alter'd  on  the  sudden? 
How  long  her  face  is  drawn?  how  pale  she  looks, 
And  of  an  earthy  cold !     Mark  her  eyes. 
*     *     *     She  is  going.  Henry  VIII.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

Her  physician  tells  me 
She  hath  pursu'd  conclusions  infinite 

Of  easy  ways  to  die.      Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  V.,  Sc.  II. 

Bid  a  sick  man  in  sadness  make  his  will : — 
A  word  ill  urg'd  to  one  that  is  so  ill. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  I.,  Sc.  I. 

By  his  gates  of  breath 

There  lies  a  downy  feather,  which  stirs  not: 
Did  he  suspire,  that  light  and  weightless  down 
Perforce  must  move.  Henry  IV— ^d,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

Lend  me  a  looking-glass ; 
If  that  her  breath  will  mist  or  stain  vne  stone, 
Why  then  she  lives.  King  Lear,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

47 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 


Death,  on  a  solemn  night  of  state, 

In  all  his  pomp  of  terror  sate  : 

The  attendants  of  his  gloomy  reign, 

Diseases  dire,  a  ghastly  train  ! 

Crowded  the  vast  court.    With  hollow  tone, 

A  voice  thus  thundered  from  the  throne  : 

"  This  night  our  minister  we  name  ; 

Let  every  ^ervant  speak  his  claim  ; 

Merit  shall  bear  this  ebon  wand." 

All,  at  the  word,  stretched  forth  their  hand. 

Fever,  with  burning  heat  possessed. 

Advanced,  and  for  the  wand  addressed  : 

"  I  to  the  weekly  bills  appeal ; 

Let  those  express  my  fervant  zeal ; 

On  every  slight  occasion  near, 

With  violence  I  persevere  " 

Next  Gout  appears  with  limping  pace, 

Pleads  how  he  shifts  from  place  to  place  : 

From  head  to  foot  how  swift  he  flies, 

And  every  joint  and  sinew  plies  ; 

Still  working  when  he  se'ems  supprest. 

A  most  tenacious  stubborn  guest. 

A  haggard  spectre  from  the  crew 

(  Yawls  forth,  and  thus  asserts  his  due  : 

"  'Tis  I  who  taint  the  sweetest  joy, 

And  in  the  shape  of  love  destroy. 

My  shanks,  sunk  eyes,  and  noseless  face, 

Prove  my  pretension  to  the  place." 

Stone  urged  his  overgrowing  force  ; 

And,  next  consumption's  meagre  corse, 

With  feeble  voice  that  scarce  was  heard, 

Broke  with  short  coughs,  his  suit  preferred  : 

"  Let  none  object  my  lingering  way  : 

I  gain,  like  Fabius,  by  delay  ; 

Fatigue  and  weaken  every  foe 

By  long  attack,  secure,  though  slow." 

Plague  represents  his  rapid  power, 

\\  ho  thinned  a  nation  in  an  hour. 

All  spoke  their  claim  and  hoped  the  wand. 

Now  expectation  hushed  the  band, 

When  thus  the  monarch  from  tjie  throne  : 

"  Merit  was  ever  modest  known. 

What !  no  physician  speak  his  right? 

None  here  !  but  fees  their  toil  requite. 

Let,  then,  Intemperance  take  the  wand. 

WTho  fills  with  gold  their  zealous  hand. 

You,  Fever,  Gout,  and  all  the  rest— 

Whom  wary  men  as  foes  detest— 

Forego  your  claim.    No  more  pretend 

Intemperance  is  esteemed  a  friend  ; 

He  shares  their  mirth,  their  social  joys, 

And  as  a  courted  guest  destroys. 

The  charge  on  him  must  justly  fall. 

Who  finds  employment  for  you  all  "  <;<u/—"  Court  of  Death. 


48 


[TJJWT5RSITY1] 


PART  III. 

SURGERY. 

Shakes  pi-are  paid  much  more  attention  to  the  practice  of 
medicine  and  obstetrics  than  to  surgery.  Perhaps  the  cause  of 
this  \vus  that  at  that  time  surgery  had  not  reached  its  present 
perfection.  A  more  probable  reason  is  that  his  son-in-law,  Dr. 
John  11  all,  may  not  have  been  a  surgeon. 


.   What,  are  you  hurt,  lieutenant? 
Cos.     Ay,  past  all  surgery.  4 

Othello.  AH  IL,Se.  III. 

Can  honour  set  a  leg?     No.     Or  an  arm?     No.     Or  take  away  the  grief  of 
a  wound?     No.      Honour  hath  no  skill  in  surgery  then?     No. 

Henry  IV.,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

With  the  help  of  a  .surgeon  he  might  yet  recover. 

Tx  Dream,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 


Let  me  have  surgeons; 
I  am  cut  to  the  brains. 

King  Lear,  Act  IF.,  Sc.  VI. 

The  king  himself  hath  a  heavy  reckoning  to  make  when  all  those  legs, 
and  arms,  and  heads,  chopped  oft'  in  a  battle,  shall  join  together  at  the  latter 
day,  and  cry  all  -  We  died  at  such  a  place  ;  some  swearing,  some  crying  for 
a  surgeon,  some,  upon  their  wives  left  poor  behind  them. 

Henry  V.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 

I'«tr.   Who  keeps  the  tent  now  ? 

Tficr.  The  surgeon's  box,  or  the  patient's  wound. 

Cnxxida,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 


Give  physic  to  the  sick,  ease  to  the  pain'd  : 

The  poor,  lame,  blind,  halt,  creep,  cry  out  for  thee. 


Lncrece. 


What  opposite  discoveries  we  have  seen  ! 

(^i.mis  of  true  fjenins,  and  of  empty  pockets;) 

One  makes  new  noses,  one  a  guillotine, 

Our  breaks  your  bones,  one  sets  them  in  their  sockets. 

Hi/mn— Don  Juan,  ('unto  /.,  Verse  CXXIX. 

49 


.MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 


The  lawyer's  brief  is  like  tin-  surgeon's  knife 
Dissecting  the  \vliole  inside  of  a  question, 
And  with  it  all  the  process  of  digestion. 

i-  Don  JIKIII.  Cinito  .V.,   Verse  XIV. 


All  feel  the  ill,  yet  shun  the  cure. 
('an  sense  this  paradox  endure? 

Sir/ft. 

Syphilis  is  frequently  referred  to,  and  he  represents  several  of 
his  characters  as  having  it  ;  among  them  Falstaff  and  Dame 
Quickly. 

Li/ximachuft  to  keeper  of  <t  Immly  house  : 

Have  you  that  a  man  may  deal  withal  and  del'y  the  surgeon? 

Peridcx,  AH  IV.,  He.  VI. 

You  help  to  make  the  diseases,  Doll: 
We  catch  of  you,  Doll,  we  catch  of  you. 

Henry  7F-2<7,  Act  //.,  H<:  IV. 

Boult.  Do  you  know  the  French  knight  that  cowers  i'  the  hams? 
Bawd.  As  for  him  he  brought  his  disease  hither. 

Perictes,  Ad  IV.,  He.  II. 

Doth  fortune  play  the  huswife  with  me  now  ? 
News  have  I,  that  my  Nell  is  dead  i'  the  spital 
Of  malady  of  France. 

Henry  V.,  Act  V.,  He.  I. 

In  this  sty,  where,  since  I  came, 
Diseases  have  been  sold  dearer  than  physic. 

Per  iciest,  Act  IV.,  He.  17. 

With  tomboys,     *     *     *     with  diseas'd  ventures, 
That  play  with  all  infirmities  for  gold, 
Which  rottenness  can  lend  nature  ! 

Such  boil'd  stuff 
As  well  might  poison  poison! 

CifiiibHine,  Act  /.,  He.    J7. 

I  have  purchased  as  many  diseases  under  her  roof  as  come  to 
three  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

Measure  for  Measure,  AH  I,  He.  //. 

Nor  did  not  with  unbashful  forehead  woo 
The  means  of  weakness  and  debility. 

As  You  Like  It,  Ad.  II.,  He.  III. 

If  we  two  be  one,  and  thou  play  false, 
I  do  digest  the  poison  of  thy  flesh. 

Comedy  of  Errors,  Act  IL.  He.  //. 

50 


SURGERY. 

Consumptions  sow 

In  holloic  bone*  of  men  ;  strike  their  sharp  shin*, 
And  mar  men's  spurring.      Crack  the  lawyer's  mice, 
That  he  may  never  more  false  title  plead, 
Nor  sound  his  quillets  .shrilly:  hoar  the  flamen, 
That  scolds  against  the  quality  of  flesh, 
And  not  believes  himself:  doirn  trit/i  the  none, 
Doim  iritli  it  flat ;  take  the  bridge  quite  away, 
Of  him  that,  his  particular  to  foresee, 

Smells  from  the  </cnci-af  treat :   make  cnrl'd  pate  ruffians  bald ; 
And  let  the  unscarr'd  hraggarts  of  the  war 
J)erire  some  pain  from  you. 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  IV.,  tic.  ///. 

The  symptoms  of  secondary  and  tertiary  syphilis  .are  accu- 
rately expressed  in  this  curse  of  Timon's.  Leprosy  is  referred 
to  in  the  sentence  •' hoar  the  tlamen,"  or  in  other  words,  make 
white  the  priest.  Shakespeare  here  shows  a  very  fine  point  by 
using  these  most  dreaded  of  all  diseases:  leprosy,  syphilis,  and 
consumption — maladies  that  are  hereditary,  incurable,  and  con- 
tagious. They  are  certainly  lasting. as  he  wishes  the  curse  to  be. 

A  pox  on  't ! 
A  common  expression  scattered  through  many  of  his  plays. 

A  man  can  no  more  separate  age  and  covetousness  than  he  can  part  young 
limits  and  lechery;  hut  the  gout  galls  the  one.  and  the  pox  pinches  the  other. 

Jle >,,->/  IV -2(1,  Act  I.,  tic.  If. 

I' faith,  if  he  be  not  rotten  before  he  die  (as  we  have  many  pocky  corses 
now-a-days,  that  will  scarce  hold  the  laying  in),  he  will  last  you  some  eight 
year  or  nine  year. 

Hamlet,  AH  V.,  tic.  /. 

She  hath  eaten  up  all  her  beef,  and  is  herself  in  the  tub. 

Measure   for  J/m.s'///v,  Aet  III.,  tic.  II. 

To  the  spital  go, 

And  from  the  powdering-tub  of  infamy 
Fetch  forth  the  la/ar-kite  of  Cressid's  kind, 
Doll  Tearsheet  she  by  name.  Jlenry  J*.,  Act  II.,  tic.  I. 

Be  a  whore  still  :***.,» 
Give  them  diseases, 

*     Season  the  slaves 

For  tubs  and  baths  ;  bring  down  rose-cheeked  youth 
To  the  tub-fast,  and  the  diet. 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

51 


I 
MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

Dr.  Macdonnell,  of  Canada,  has  thrown  much  light  on  these 
quotations  in  his  works  on  Syphilis.  He  says  :  "  It  appears  to 
have  been  the  custom  to  prescribe  for  syphilitic  patients,  in 
addition  to  inunction,  a  prolonged  diaphoresis  and  a  very  low 
diet.  On  the  continent  the  patient  was  placed  in  a  cave,  oven, 
or  dungeon,  and  Wiseman  says  it  was  the  custom  in  England  to 
use  a  tub  for  this  purpose." 

In  the  foot-note  to  the  passage  in  Johnson  &  Steven's  edition 
of  Shakespeare's  works  the  following  quotations  from  old  plays 
are  given  : 

" you  had  better  match  a  ruin'd  bawd, 

One  ten  times  cur'd  by  sweating  and  the  tub." 

Jaspar  Mai  IK*.  1  <;:',«.). 

Again,  in  the  Family  of  Love,  (1608),  a  doctor  says  : 

"  O  for  one  of  the  hoops  of  my  Cornelius'  tub,  I  shall  burst  myself  with  laughing  else." 

In  Monsieur  d1  Olive,  (1606) : 

"  Our  embassage  is  into  France,  there  may  be  employment  for  thee :  Hast  thou  a  tub?  " 

She,  whom  the  spital-hou.se,  and  ulcerous  sores 
Would  cast  the  gorge  at,  this  embalms  and  spices 
To  the  April  day  again. 

Timon  of  Alhem,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 
'Tis  I  who  taint  the  sweetest  joy, 
And  in  the  shape  of  love  destroy. 
My  shanks,  sunk  eyes,  and  noseless  face, 
Prove  my  pretension  to  the  place. 

Gtay. 

Pox  take  him  and  his  wit. 

Swtft. 

Constant  to  nought -save  hazard  and  a  whore, 
Yet  cursing  both  -for  both  have  made  him  sore  : 
Unread— unless,  since  books  beguile  disease, 
The  pox  becomes  his  passage  to  degrees. 

Kyron — Hints  from  Iforacf. 

I  said  small-pox  had  gone  out  of  late  ; 

Perhaps  it  will  be  followed  by  the  great. 

'  Tis  said  the  great  came  from  America  ; 

Perhaps  it  may  set  out  on  its  return,— 

The  population  there  so  spreads,  they  say, 

'Tis  grown  high  time  to  thin  it  in  its  turn, 

With  war,  or  plague,  or  famine,  any  way, 

So  that  civilization  they  may  learn  ; 

And  which  in  ravage  the  more  loathsome  evil  is — 

Their  real  lues,  or  our  pseudo-syphilis? 

Hi/ro/i— Don  Juan,  Canto  I.,  Vers?  CXXX. 

He'll  feel  the  weight  of  it  many  a  day. 

Owotey. 

52 


SURGERY. 

A  little  attention  is  paid  to  diseases  of  the  eye,  thus  in  Winter's 

Talc  : 

Wishing  all  eyes 

Blind  with  the  pin  and  web,  but  theirs,  theirs  only, 
That  would  unseen  be  wicked. 

Act  I.,  Sc.  IT. 

Commentators  have  the  thought  that  Shakespeare  wished  to 
express  the  idea  of  cataract  by  the  term  pin  and  web — this  is, 
without  doubt,  a  mistake  ;  he  did  not  intend  to  make  lovers  so 
rnicl  that  they  should  desire  to  deprive  every  one  else  of  sight. 
Pin  and  web  (being  a  varicose  excrescence  of  the  conjunctiva, 
sometimes  to  such  an  extent  as  to  totally  prevent  vision),  was 
meant  to  express  a  veil,  or  in  other  words,  the  eyelid. 

Must  you  with  hot  irons  burn  out  both  mine  eyes? 
ft         •***•**          -5;-          •:;-          * 

0  heaven  !  that  tliere  were  but  a  mote  in  yours, 
A  grain,  a  dust,  a  gnat,  a  wandering  hair, 

Any 'annoyance  in  that  precious  sense! 

Then,  feeling  what  small  things  are  boist'rous  there, 

Your  vile  intent  must  needs  seem  horrible. 

Kiny  John,  Act  IV.,  ,SV.  /. 

The  term  -sand-blind''  was  meant  to  express  a  dimness  of 
sight,  as  if  sand  had  been  thrown  in  the  eyes. 

Inf.  O  heavt  us,  this  is  my  true-begotten  father!  who,  being  more  than 
sand-blind,  high-gravel  blind,  knows  me  not. 

•K-          ##*•*###-::- 

lilio.         Alack,  sir,  I  am  sand-blind,  I  know  you  not. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  II.,  Sc.  II. 

1  remember  thine  eyes  well  enough 

Dost  thou  squiny  at  me? 

King  Lear,  Ad.  IV..  Sc.  f  /. 

He  gives  the  web  and  the  pin,  squints  the  eye,  and  makes  the  hare-lip. 

King  Lear,  Act  I>L,  Sc.  IV. 

Thou  green  sarcenet  flap  lor  a  sore  eye. 

Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  F.,  Sc.  J. 

\  merry,  cock-eyed,  curious  looking  sprite. 

Hi/ran —  Vuton  ty  Judgment. 

To  no  ono  muse  »loos  she  her  glance  confine, 

Hut  ha-  mi  eye,  at  once,  to  all  the  nine.  Tom  Mnnre. 

The  subject  of  wounds  has  received  frequent  mention. 

53 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

A  scratch,  a  scratch ;  marry,  'tis  enough  ;  'go,  villain,  fetch  a  sur- 

geon.    *    *    *    'Tis  not  deep  as  a  well,  nor  as  wide  as  a  church  door;  but 
'tis  enough,    *    *    *    ask  for  me  to-morrow,  and  you  shall  find  me  a  grave 

man. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

Have  by  some  surgeon     *    * 

To  stop  his  wounds  lest  he  do  bleed  to  death. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 

For  the  love  of  God,  a  surgeon  !  send  one  presently  to  Sir  Toby. 
H'as  broke  my  head  across,  and  has  given  Sir  Toby  a  bloody  coxcomb  too : 
for  the  love  of  God  your  help ! 

Twelfth  Night,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

Romeo.      Your  plantain  leaf  is  excellent  for  that. 
Benvolio.  For  what,  I  pray  thee  ? 
Romeo.  For  thy  broken  shin. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  I.,  Sc.  II. 

Moth.       A  wonder,  master ;  here's  a  Costard  broken  in  a  shin. 

Armado.  Some  enigma,  some  riddle :  come, — thy  Venvoy  ;  begin. 

Costard.  No  egma,  no  riddle,  no  Venvoy;  no  salve  in  the  male,  sir;  O 
sir,  plantain,  a  plain  plantain;  no  salve,  sir,  but  a 

plantain!  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

The  sovereign'st  thing  on  earth 
Was  parmaceti,  for  an  inward  bruise. 

Henry  IV.,  Act  I.,  Sc.  III. 

I  do  beseech  your  majesty,  may  salve 

The  long-grown  wounds  of  my  intemperance. 

Henry  IV.,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Let  us  hence,  my  sovereign,  to  provide 
A  salve  for  any  sore  that  may  betide. 

Henry  VI— M,  Act.  IV,  Sc.  VI. 
Here  is  a  letter,  lady  ; 
The  paper  as  the  body  of  my  friend, 
And  every  word  in  it  a  gaping  wound, 
Issuing  life-blood.  Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

He  jests  at  scars,  that  never  felt  a  wound. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  II. ,  Sc.  II. 

Dercetas.          This  is  his  sword  ; 

I  robb'd  his  wound  of  it.     *     *     * 
Cfesar.       *    *    *     We  do  lance 

Diseases  in  our  bodies. 

Antony  and  Cleopaira,  Act  V..  Sc.  /. 

54 


SURGERY. 


.  Where  is  he  wounded  ? 
Vol.    I'  the  shoulder  and  i'  the  left  arm  : 

There  will  be  large  cicatrices  to  show  the  people. 

Coriolanus,  Act  II.  ,  Sc.  L 

What  wound  did  ever  heal  but  by  degrees  ? 

Othello,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 

To  see  the  salve  doth  make  the  wound  ache  more. 

Lucrece. 

Scratch  thee  but  with  a  pin,  and  there  remains 
Some  scar  of  it. 

As  You  Like  It,  Act  III.,  Sc.  V. 

The  nevv-heal'd  wound    *          *    should  break  out, 
Which  would  be  so  much  the  more  dangerous. 

Richard  III.,  Act  II..  Sc  II. 

I  shall  desire  you  of  more  acquaintance,  good  master  cobweb.     If  I  cut  my 
linger,  1  shall  make  bold  with  you. 

Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

I'll  fetch  some  flax,  and  whites  of  eggs 

To  apply  to  'a  bleeding  face. 

King  Lear,  Act  III.,  Sc.  VII. 

Go,  get  a  white  of  an  egg  and  a  little  ilax,  and  close  the  breach  of  the  head  ;  it  is  the 

most  conilucihle  tliinii  that  can  br. 

Ben  Jonson  -  '  '  The  Case  is  Altered.'  '    A  ct  II.  ,  Sc.  I  V, 

(  )nc's  hip  in-  slash'd,  and  split  the  other's  shoulder, 
Ami  ilruvr  them  with  their  brutal  yells  to  seek 
I  r  there  might  be  chirurgeons  who  could  solder 
The  wounds  they  richly  merited. 

Byron—  Don  Juan,  Canto  VIII.,  Verse  XCIV. 

Many  surgical  subjects  receive  but  little  attention  from  him. 

Ber.  What  is  it,  my  good  lord,  the  king  languishes  of? 

Laf.  A  fistula,  my  lord. 

AW  a  Well,  Act  L,  Sc.  I. 

Fnl.    Why,  sirs,  I  am  almost  out  at  heels. 
AW.  Why,  then,  let  kibes  ensue. 

Merry  Wives,  Act  L,  Sc.  III. 

The  age  is  grown  so  picked,  that  the  toe  of  the  peasant  comes  so  near  the 

heel  of  the  courtier,  he  galls  his  kibe. 

Hamlet,  Act  F.,  Sfc.  I. 

If  it  were  a  kibe 

'Twould  put  me  to  my  slipper. 

Tempest,  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

55 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

If  a  man's  brains  were  in  's  heels,  were  't  not  in  danger  of  kibes  ? 

King  Lear,  Act  L,  Sc.  V. 

Does  your  worship  mean  to  geld  and  splay  all  the  youth  of  the  city  ? 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  II.,  ASV-.  /. 

Thou  hast  drawn  my  shoulder  out  of  joint. 

Henry  IV—  2<l,  Act  V.,  Sc.  IV. 

Were  't  my  fitness 
To  let  these  hands  obey  my  blood, 
They  are  apt  enough  to  dislocate  and  tear 
Thy  flesh  and  bones : — howe'er  thou  art  a  fiend, 
A  woman's  shape  doth  shield  thee. 

King  Lear,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

Charles  in  a  moment  threw  him,  and  broke  three  of  his  ribs, 
there  is  little  hope  of  life  in  him. 

As  You  Like  It,  Act  L,  Sc.  II. 

It  is  the  first  time  that  ever  I  heard  breaking  of  ribs  was  sport  for  ladies. 

As  You  Like  It,  Act  I.,  Sc.  II. 

On  her  left  breast 

A  mole  cinque-spotted,  like  the  crimson  drops 
I'  the  bottom  of  a  cowslip. 

Cymbeline,  Act  IL,  Sc.  II. 

Under  her  breast 

(Worthy  the  pressing)  lies  a  mole,  right  proud 
Of  that  most  delicate  lodging. 

CymbeUne,  Act  II. ,  Sc.  IV. 

If  thou  wert    *    *    *    * 
Lame,  foolish,  crooked,  swart,  prodigious, 
Patch'd  with  foul  moles  and  eye  offending  marks, 
I  would  not  care.     *    *    * 

King  John,  Act  IIL,  Sc.  I. 

In  case  of  a  recent  burn  it  was  the  custom  to  place  the  part 
near  the  fire,  thus  upholding  the  old  homoeopathic  doctrine  that 
what  hurts  will  cure. 

And  falsehood  falsehood  cures ;  as  fire  cools  fire 
Within  the  scorched  veins  of  one  new  burn'd. 

King  John,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

One  fire  drives  out  one  fire ;  one  nail,  one  nail ; 
Rights  by  rights  founder,  strength  by  strengths  do  fail. 

Coriolanus,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  VII. 

56 


SURGERY. 


One  fire  burns  out  another's  burning, 
One  pain  is  lessen'd  by  another's  anguish. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  L,  Sc.  II. 

Even  as  one  heat  another  heat  expels, 
Or  as  one  nail  by  strength  drives  out  another, 
So  the  remembrance  of  my  former  love 
Is  by  a  newer  object  quite  forgotten. 

Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  Act  II. ,  8c  IV. 

I  must  not  break  my  back  to  heal  his  finger. 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  II.,  Sc.  L 

That  bottled  spider,  that  foul,  bunch-back'd  toad. 

Richard  III.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

"Where's  that  valiant  crook-back  prodigy  ? 

Henry  VI— 3d,  Aft  L,  Sc.  IV. 

Ladies,  that  have  their  toes 

Unplagu'd  with  corns,  will  have  a  bout  with  you. 

*    *    *     Which  of  you  all 

Will  now  deny  to  dance  ?  she  that  makes  dainty, 

She,  I'll  swear,  hath  corns. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  L,  Sc.  V. 

Strangely-visited  people, 
All  swoln  and  ulcerous,  pitiful  to  the  eye, 
The  mere  despair  of  surgery. 

Macbeth,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

Fell  sorrow's  tooth  doth  never  rankle  more 
Than  when  it  bites  but  lanceth  not  the  sore. 

Richard  II.,  Act  L,  Sc.  III. 

You  rub  the  sore, 

When  you  should  bring  the  plaster. 

Tempest,  Act  IL,  Sc.  I. 

It  will  but  skin  and  film  the  ulcerous  place. 

Hamlet,  Act  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

.M,  ,>.  The  service  of  the  foot 

Being  once  gangren'd  is  not  then  respected 

For  what  before  it  was. 
Hi  -a.    Pursue  him  to  his  house,  and  pluck  him  thence, 

Lest  his  infection,  being  of  catching  nature, 

Spread  further. 

Coriolanus,  Act  III.,  Sc.  L 

57 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

Sic.     He's  a  disease  that  must  be  cut  away. 
Men.  O  he's  a  limb  that  has  but  a  disease; 
Moral,  to  cut  it  off;  to  cure  it  easy. 

Coriolanns,  Act  ///.,  N  .  /. 

Falstaff.  Boy,  tell  him  I  am  deaf. 

Page.       You  must  speak  louder,  my  master  is  deaf. 

#         *         #         #         -x-         #         *         -x- 

Falstaff.  *    *    *    it  is  a  kind  of  deafness. 

Cli.Just.  I  think  you  are  fallen  into  the  disease;  for  you  hear  not  what  I 

say  to  you,     *    *    *    and  I  care  not  if  I  do  become  your  physician. 
Falstaff.  *  I  should  be  your  patient  to  follow  your  prescriptions, 

the  wise  may  make  some  dram  of  a  scruple,  or,  indeed,  a  scruple 

itself. 

Henry  IV— Zd,  Act  I.,  Sc.  II. 

The  surgery  described  in  Titus  Andronicus  is,  of  course,  im- 
possible. 

With  gaping  mouth. 

Madame  scolded  one  day  so  long,  , 

She  sudden  lost  all  use  of  tongue. 
The  doctor  came— with  hem  and  haw, 
Pronounced  the  affection  a  lock'd  jaw. 


Let  firm,  well-hammered  soles  protect  thy  feet 
Through  freezing  snows,  and  rains,  and  soaking  sleet. 
Should  the  big  last  extend  the  shoe  too  wide, 
Each  stone  will  wrench  the  unwary  step  aside  ; 
The  sudden  turn  may  stretch  the  swelling  vein, 
The  cracking  joint  unhinge,  or  ankle  sprain  ; 
And  when  too  short  the  modish  shoes  are  worn, 
You'll  judge  the  seasons  by  your  shooting  corn 

Gay. 

Leeches  stick,  nor  quit  the  bleeding  wound, 
Till  oft'  they  drop  with  skinfuls  to  the  ground. 

Swift. 

Think  of  the  thunderer's  falling  down  below 

( ,'arotid-artery-eutting  Castlereagh  ! 

Alas  !  that  glory  should  be  chill' d  by  snow  ! 

Byron — Don  Juan,  Canto  X ,  Verne  LI X. 

.The  surgeon  had  his  instruments  and  bled 
Pedrillo,  and  so  gently  ebb'd  his  breath, 
You  hardly  could  perceive  when  he  was  dead. 

And  first  a  little  crucifix  he  kissed, 
And  then  held  out  his  jugular  and  wrist. 

lltjron — I)(>ii  Juan,  Canto  IT.,  Verse  LXXVI. 


58 


UNIVERSITY 


PART  IV. 

OBSTETRICS. 

Obstetrics  w&s  Shakespeare's  favorite  branch  of  the  profession, 
and  he  has  not  been  at  all  sparing  in  reference  to  it.  Under  this 
head  will  be  included  many  topics  which  could  more  properly  be 
placed  in  the  chapter  on  physiology,  but  it  is  thought  better  to 
have  such  intimate  subjects  classed  together.  They  have  been 
arranged  in  the  order  of  their  natural  occurrence. 


My  child  is  yet  a  stranger  in  the  world, 

She  hath  not  seen  the  change  of  fourteen  years  ; 

Let  two  more  summers  wither  in  their  pride, 

Ere  we  may  think  her  ripe  to  be  a  bride. 
r<n-i*.       Younger  than  she  are  happy  mothers  made. 
('upiih-t    And  t<><>  soon  uiarr'd  are  those  so  early  made. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  /.,  8c.  II. 

Well,  think  of  marriage  now;  younger  than  JTOU, 

Here  in  Verona,  ladies  of  esteem, 

Are  made  already  mothers:  by  my  count, 

I  was  your  mother  much  upon  these  years 

That  you  arc  now  a  maid. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  I.,  Sc.  III. 

In  the  old  poem  Juliet's  age  is  put  down  as  sixteen  ;  in  Payn- 
tcr's  novel  she  is  said  to  be  eighteen.  Shakespeare,  however, 
makes  her  fourteen,  but  who  ever  imagines  her  of  these  tender 
years  while  enjoying  the  play?  It  seems  absurd  to  think  of  her 
as  heing  less  than  twenty  or  twenty-two  until  we  recollect  that 
she  grew  and  developed  into  early  womanhood  under  the  sun  of 
an  Italian  clime.  The  wonderful  development  of  the  girls  of 
Italy  can  easily  be  seen  in  the  Eternal  city.  Taking  a  stroll 
down  to  the  Spanish  staircase  which  is  daily  filled  with  Roman 
models  lazily  awaiting  the  engagements  of  the  artists,  or  a  walk 
on  the  Corso,  or  around  the  Theatre  of  Marcellus,  convinces  one 
at  once  that  Shakespeare's  Juliet,  young  as  she  is,  is  not  over- 

59 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

drawn,  and  that  the   Italian   girl    of  fourteen  is  indeed  fully 
"  ripe  to  be  a  bride." 

'Tis  a  sad  thing,  I  can  not  choose1  but  say. 

And  all  the  fault  of  that  indecent  sun 

Who  can  not  leave  alone  our  helpless  clay, 

Hut  will  keep  baking,  broiling,  burning  on, 

That,  howsoever  people  fast  and  pray, 

The  flesh  is  frail  and  so  the  soul's  undone  : 

What  men  call  gallantry,  and  gods  adultery, 

Is  much  more  common  where  the  climate's  sultry. 

Hi/ ron — Don  Juan,  Canto  I.,  Verse  LX III. 

Shakespeare  has  hinted  several  times  that  it  was  a  common 
occurrence  for  girls  of  this  "  sun-burnt  nation  "  to  be  mothers 
at  the  age  of  fourteen.  Paris  assures  Juliet's  father  that  "younger 
than  she  are  happy  mothers  made,"  and  Lady  Capulet,  in  her 
conversation  with  her  daughter,  alludes  to  the  fact  that  she  was 
her  mother  when  she  was  but  thirteen.  She  also  echoes  Paris 

in  saying : 

Younger  than  you 
Here  in  Verona,  ladies  of  esteem, 
Are  made  already  mothers. 

Another  reference  is  found  in  Winter's  Tale  : 

If  this  prove  true,  they'll  pay  for  it:  by  mine  honour, 

I'll  geld  'em  all ;  fourteen  they  shall  not  see, 

To  bring  false  generations.  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

Perhaps  Byron  had  a  better  idea  of  this  climatic  effect  than 
any  other  poet.  He  has  frequently  written  of  it ;  indeed,  it 
forms  the  foundation  of  some  of  his  poems. 

Wedded  she  was  some  years,  and  to  a  man 
Of  fifty  and  such  husbands  are  in- plenty  ; 
And  yet,  I  think,  instead  of  such  a  one, 
'Twere  better  to  have  two  of  five  and  twenty, 
Especially  in  countries  near  the  sun. 

Byron— Don  Juan,  Canto  I.,  Verse  LXIL 

It  was  upon  a  day,  a  summer's  day ; 
Summer  's  indeed  a  very  dangerous  season, 
And  so  is  spring  about  the  end  of  May  ; 
The  sun,  no  doubt,  is  the  prevailing  reason. 

Byron — Don  Juan,  Canto  I.,  Tow  OIL 

Haideewas  nature's  bride,  and  knew  not  this  ; 
Haidee  was  passion's  child,  born  where  the  sun 
Showers  triple  light,  and  scorches  even  the  kiss 
Of  his  gazelle-eyed  daughters. 

Byron— Don  Juan,  Canto  II.,  Verse  CCII. 

60 


OBSTETRICS. 


The  Turks  do  well  to  shut— at  least  sometimes— 
The  women  up -because,  in  sad  reality, 
Their  chastity  in  these  unhappy  climes 
Is  not  a  thing  of  that  astringent  quality, 
Which  in  the  north  prevents  precocious  crimes. 

Byron— Don  Juan,  Canto  V.,  Verse  CLVII. 

Few  >hort  years  make  wondrous  alterations, 
Particularly  among  snn-huint  nations. 

Jii/ro-n—Don  Juan,  ('onto  I.,  Verse  LXIX. 

Our  English  maids  are  long  to  woo, 
And  frigid  even  in  possession; 
And  it' their  charms  he  fair  to  view, 
Their  lips  are  blow  at  love's  confession  : 
I '.ut  horn  beneath  a  brighter  sun. 
For  love  ordain'd  the  Spanish  maid  is 
And  who  when  fondly,  fairly  won,— 
Knehants  you  like  the  girl  ofCadiz? 

In  each  her  charms  the  heart  must  move 
of  all  who  venture  to  behold  her; 
Then  let  not   maids  less  fair  re]. rove 
Because  her  bosom  is  not  colder: 
Through  many  a  clime  'ti?>  mine  to  roam 
Where  many  a  soft  and  melting  maid  is. 
Hut  none  abroad  and  lew  at  home 
May  match  the  dark-eyed  girl  of  Cadiz. 

Byron— Poems, 

What  a  beautiful  comparison  Shakespeare  has  made  between 
the  virgin  and  flowers. 

I  would  I  had  some  flowers  o'  the  spring,  that  might 
Become  your  time  of  day  ;  and  yours,  and  yours, 
That  wear  upon  your  virgin  branches  yet 
Your  maidenheads  growing     * 

pale  primroses, 

That  die  unmarried,  ere  they  can  behold 
JJright  Plm-bus  in  his  strength, — a  malady 

Most  incident  to  maids. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  IV..  Sc.  III. 

Fair  Hermia,  question  your  desires, 
Know  of  your  youth,  examine  well  your  blood, 
Whether,  if  you  yield  not  to  your  father's  choice, 
You  can  endure  the  livery  of  a  nun  ; 
For  aye  to  be  in  shady  cloister  mew'd 
To  live  a  barren  sister  all  your  life, 
Chanting  faint  hymns  to  the  cold  fruitless  moon. 
Thrice  blessed  they  that  master  so  their  blood, 
To  undergo  such  maiden  pilgrimage  ; 

61 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OP    SHAKESPEARE. 

But  earthly  happier  is  the  rose  distill'd, 

Than  that,  which,  withering  on  the  virgin  thorn, 

Grows,  lives,  and  dies  in  single  blessedness. 

Midsummer  Nig  Jit's  Dream,  Act  /.,  Sc.  I. 

Fecundation  is  not  overlooked,  and  Shakespeare  shows  his 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  penis  is  merely  the  spout  or  fun- 
nel by  which  the  semen  is  conveyed  to  the  uterus,  and  aptly 
compares  the  womb  to  a  bottle,  which  in  his  time  gradually 
tapered  toward  the  neck.  The  word  tundish  is  an  old  Warwick- 
shire name  for  a  funnel. 

Duke.   Why  should  he  die,  sir? 

Lucio.  Why  ?    For  filling  a  bottle  with  a  tun-dish. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Thou  shalt  n»t  die :  die  for  adultery  !  No: 
The  wren  goes  to  't,  and  the  small  gilded  fly 
Does  lecher  in  my  sight. 

Let  copulation  thrive  for  Gloster's  bastard  sou 
Was  kinder  to  his  father  than  ray  daughters 
Got  'tween  lawful  sheets. 

King  Lear,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  VI. 

Hymen  hath  brought  the  bride  to  bed, 
Where,  by  the  loss  of  maidenhead, 
A  babe  is  moulded. 

Pericles,  Gow  to  Act  III. 

Crack  nature's  moulds,  all  germeus  spill  at  once, 
That  make  ungrateful  man. 

King  Lear,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Q.  Eliz.  But  thou  didst  kill  my  children. 

K.  Rich.  But  in  your  daughter's  womb  I'll  bury  them ; 

Where,  in  that  nest  of  spicery,  they  shall  breed 

Selves  of  themselves,  to  your  recomforture. 

Richard  III.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

Your  brother  and  his  lover  have  embrac'd : 
As  those  that  feed  grow  full ;  as  blossoming  time, 
That  from  the  seedness  the  bare  fallow  brings 
To  teeming  foison,  even  so  her  plenteous  womb 
Expresseth  his  full  tilth  and  husbandry. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  /.,  Sc.  IV. 

Hear,  nature,  hear ;  dear  goddess  hear ! 
Suspend  thy  purpose,  if  thou  didst  intend 

62 


OBSTETRICS. 

To  make  this  creature  fruitful ! 
Into  her  womb  convey  sterility  ! 
Dry  up  in  her  the  organs  of  increase ; 
And  from  her  derogate  body  never  spring 
A  babe  to  honour  her  !     If  she  must  teem, 
Create  her  child  of  spleen  ;  that  it  may  live, 
And  be  a  thwart  disnatur'd  torment  to  her ! 
Let  it  stamp  wrinkles  in  her  brow  of  youth  ; 
With  cadent  tears  fret  channels  in  her  cheeks; 
Turn  all  her  mother's  pains  and  benefits 
To  laughter  and  contempt:  that  she  may  feel 
How  sharper  than  a  serpent's  tooth  it  is 
To  have  a  thankless  child  ! 

King  Lear,  Act  I.,  Sc.  IV. 

The  production  of  either  sex  at  will  agitated  the  minds  of 
physiologists  to  a  considerable  extent  during  Shakespeare's  time. 
Indeed  he  seems  to  have  held,  an  ancient  theory  that  the  more 
vigorous  of  the  parents  produced  the  opposite  sex.  Dr.  Robert, 
of  Paris,  in  his  paper  entitled  Megalanthropogenesis,  somewhat 
followed  up  this  theory  and  maintained  that  "  the  race  of  men 
of  genius  might  be  perpetuated  by  uniting  them  to  better  phy- 
Mrally  developed  women  having  clever  minds,"  which,  according 
to  his  theory,  would,  of  course,  result  in  nothing  but  male 
children. 

Bring  forth  men-children  only ! 
For  thy  undaunted  mettle  should  compose 

Nothing  but  males. 

Macbeth,  ActI.,Sc.  VII. 

For  men's  sake,  the  authors  of  these  women; 
Or  women's  sake,  by  whom  we  men  are  men. 

Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

Be  advis'd,  fair  maid  : 

To  you  your  father  should  be  as  a  god ; 

One  that  compos'd  your  beauties  ;  yea,  and  one 

To  whom  you  are  but  as  a  form  in  wax, 

By  him  imprinted,  and  within  his  power 

To  leave  the  figure,  or  disfigure  it. 

Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  Act  I ,  Sc.  I. 

The  child  would  therefore  resemble  the  parent  of  opposite  sex. 

63 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

Nur*e  to  Henry  VIII: 

'Tis  a  girl    *    *    *    as  like  you 
As  cherry  is  to  cherry. 

Act  r.,Sc.  I. 

Paulina  pleading  to  Leontes  on  the  birth  of  a  daughter  to  his  wife  Hemn'one  : 

Behold,  my  lords, 

Although  the  print  be  little,  the  whole  matter    . 
And  copy  of  the  father,— eye,  nose,  lip; 
The  trick  of  's  frown  ;  his  forehead  ;  nay,  the  valley, 
The  pretty  dimples  of  his  chin  and  cheek  ;  his  smiles  ; 
The  very  mould  and  frame  of  hand-,  nail,  finger. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 

It  is  a  very  old  opinion  that  the  mental  state  of  parents  dur- 
ing coition  influenced  to  a  certain  extent  the  mental  activity  of 
the  offspring.  Bastards  were  supposed  to  excel  in  this  respect 
on  account  of  the  mental  excitement  during  the  intercourse 
from  which  they  took  their  origin.  Burton  held  this  view  in  his 
"Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  and,  after  reading  King  Lear,  we 
know  that  Shakespeare  also  held  it. 

Edmund.  Why  brand  they  us 

With  base?  with  baseness?  bastardy?  base?  base? 

Who  in  the  lusty  stealth  of  nature  take 

More  composition  and  fierce  quality 

Than  doth,  within  a  dull,  stale,  tired  bed 

Go  to  the  creating  a  whole  tribe  of  fobs, 

Got  'tween  sleep  and  wake. 

Act.  /.,  Sc.  II. 

His  allusions  to  pregnancy  are  many. 

He  knows  himself  my  bed  he  hath  defil'd  ; 
And  at  that  time  he  got  his  wife  with  child : 
Dead  though  she  be,  she  feels  her  young  one  kick  ; 
So  there's  my  riddle,  One  that's  dead  is  quick. 

All's  Well,  Act  V.,Sc.  III. 

She  is  gone  ;  she  is  two  month  on  her  way.     *    * 
She  's  quick  ;  the  child  brags  in  her  belly  already. 

Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  V.,  Sc.  II. 

A  mistake  of  ten  weeks  is  truly  a  bad  one  ;  quickening  gen- 
erally being  experienced  four  and  a  half  months  after  impregna- 
tion. 

04 


OBSTETRICS. 

I  am  with  child,    *    *     *     * 

Murder  not,  then,  the  fruit  within  my  womb. 

Henry  VI.,  Act  V.,  Sc.  IV. 

she  died,  hut  not  alone  ;  she  held  within 

A  second  principle  of  life,  which  might 

Have  dawn'd  a  lair  and  sinless  child  of  sin  : 

I'.ut  closed  its  little  being  without  light, 

And  went  down  to  the  grave  unborn,  wherein 

I'.losMiin  and  hough  lie  wither'  d  with  one  blight. 

—  Don  Juan,  Canto  71'.,   ]'ersr  LXX. 


This  blue  ey'd  hag  was  hither  brought  with  child. 

Tempest,  Act  L,  Sc.  II. 

It'  myself  might  be  his  judge, 

He  should  receive  his  punishment  in  thanks  : 

He  hath  got  bis  friend  with  child. 

for  Ni'iixiire,  Act  I,  Sc.  IV. 


I  shall  answer  that  better  than  you  can  the  getting  up  of  the 

negro's  bellv:  the  moor  is  with  child 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  UL,  Sc.  V. 

I  would  there  were  no  age  between  ten,  and  three  and  twenty,  or  that 
youth  would  sleep  out  the  rest  :  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  between  but  get- 
ing  wenches  with  child,  wronging  the  ancientry,  stealing,  fighting.  *  *  * 

\\'inler'8  Tale,  Act  III.,  Sc   III. 

'/./ 
He  was  whipped  for  getting  the  shrieve's  fool  with  child;  a  dumb  inno- 

cent that  could  not  sav  him  nav. 

J//'.s  !(>//,  Act  /r.,,S'r.  ///. 

Let  wives  with  child 
Pray  that  their  burthens  may  not  fall  this  day. 

Ki  a  •/  John,  Art  IH.,Sc.  I. 

Shakespeare   knexv   of  the    importance  of  pregnant   women, 
particularly  careful  that  nothing  should  excite  them. 

I  the  rather  wean  me  from  despair, 

For  love  of  Edward's  offspring  in  my  womb: 

This  is  it  that  makes  me  bridle  passion, 

And  bear  with  mildness  my  misfortune's  cross; 

Ay,  ay,  for  this  I  draw  in  many  a  tear, 

And  stop  the  rising  of  blood-sucking  sighs, 

Lest  with  my  sighs  or  tears  I  blast  or  drown 

King  Edward's  fruit,  true  heir  to  the  English  crown. 

Henry  VI—  M,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

G5 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OP    SHAKESPEARE. 

The  longiDgs  or  desires  of  pregnant  women  are  very  nicely 
shown  in  Measure  for  Measure  : 

She  came  in  great  with  child,  and  longing  for  stewed  prunes. 

Act  IL,  Sc.  I. 

This  mistress  Elbow,  being  as  I  say,  with  child,  and  being  great  bellied, 
and  longing,  as  I  said,  for  prunes. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  IL,  Sc.  I. 

From  whom  my  absence  was  not  six  months  old, 
Before  herself  (almost  at  fainting  under 
The  pleasing  punishment  that  women  bear) 
Had  made  provision  for  her  following  me. 

Comedy  of  Errors,  Act  L.  Sc.  I. 

The  queen  rounds  apace.     *    *    * 
*    *    *    She  is  spread  of  late 
Into  a  goodly  bulk. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

The  queen,  your  mother,  rounds  apace:  we  shall 
Present  our  services  to  a  fine  new  prince 
One  of  these  days. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

She  grew  round-wombed,  and  had  a  son  for  her  cradle  ere  she  had  a  hus- 
band for  her  bed. 

King  Lear,  Act  I.,  Sc.  L 

Great-bellied  women, 
That  had  not  half  a  week  to  go,  like  rams 
In  the  old  time  of  war,  would  shake  the  press 
And  make  'em  reel  before  'em. 

Henry  VIII.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  L 

Parturition  is  referred  to  in  many  instances. 

Lucina,  O 

Divinest  patroness,  and  midwife  gentle 
To  those  that  cry  by  night,  convey  thy  deity 
Aboard  our  dancing  boat ;  make  swift  the  pangs 
Of  my  queen's  travails ! 

Pericles,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

What  shall  be  done  with  groaning  Juliet? 
She's  very  near  her  hour. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  II.,  Sc.  II. 

66 


OBSTETRICS. 

Come,  let  us  go,  and  pray  to  all  the  gods 
Fur  our  beloved  mother  in  her  pains.    • 

Titus  Andronicus,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

The  lady  shrieks,  and  well-a-near 
Doth  fall  in  travail  with  her  fear. 

Pericles,  Gow  to  Act  III. 

She  is  dt-liver'd,  lords, — she  is  deliver'd. 
I  mean,  she  is  brought  a-bed. 

Titus  Andronicus,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

The  queen's  in  labour, 

They  say,  in  great  extremity  ;  and  fear'd 

She'll  with  the  labour  end. 

Henry  VII I.,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

The  queen's  in  labour.  Her  sufferance  made 

Almost  each  pang  a  death. 

Henry  VIII ,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

Finger  of  birth-strangled  babe 
Ditch-deliver'd  by  a  drab. 

Macbeth,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 

You  ne'er  oppressed  me  with  a  mother's  groan, 
Yet  I  express  to  you  a  mother's  care. 

AIVs  Well,  Act  L,  Sc.  I. 

History  records  the  fact  that  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  after- 
wards Riclianl  III.,  was  born  with  teeth,  uneven  shoulders,  one 
-horter  than  the  other,  deformed  back,  with  a  clump  of  hair 
on  it.     These  facts  Shakespeare  never  forgot,  and  continually 
harps  on  them. 

Thy  mother  felt  more  than  a  mother's  pain, 

And  yet  brought  forth  less  than  a  mother's  hope; 

To  wit,  an  indigest  deformed  lump, 

Not  like  the  fruit  of  such  a  goodly  tree. 

Teeth  hadst  thou  in  thy  head  when  thou  wast  born, 

To  signify,  thou  cam'st  to  bite  the  world. 

Henry  VI— 3d.,  Act  V.,  Sc.  VI. 

I  have  often  heard  my  mother  say 
I  came  into  the  world  with  my  legs  forward  : 
Had  I  not  reason,  think  ye,  to  make  haste, 
And  seek  their  ruin  that  nsurp'd  our  right? 
The  midwife  wonder'd  and  the  women  cried, 
O,  Jesus  Mess  us,  lie  is  born  with  teeth  ! 

67 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

And  so  I  was,  which  plainly  signified 

That  I  should  snarl,  and  bite,  and  play  the  dog. 

Henry  VI— 3d.,  AH  V.t  8c.  17. 

Love  forswore  me  in  my  mother's  womb : 
And,  for  I  should  not  deal  in  her  soft  laws, 
She  did  corrupt  frail  nature  with  some  bribe 
To  shrink  mine  arm  up  like  a  wither'd  shrub  : 
To  make  an  envious  mountain  on  my  back, 
Where  sits  deformity  to  mock  my  body ; 
To  shape  my  legs  of  an  unequal  size  ; 
To  disproportion  me  in  every  part, 
Like  to  a  chaos,  or  an  uulick'd  bear- whelp 
That  carries  no  impression  like  the  dam. 

Henry  VI— 3d,  Act  111.,  8c.  II. 

The  term  "  unlick'd  bear-whelp,"  in  the  last  quotation,  refers 
to  an  old  notion  existing  before  Shakespeare's  time  :  that  the 
bear  brings  forth  masses  of  animated  flesh,  having  no  resem- 
blance whatever  to  her,  and  that  she  then  licks  this  shapeless 
lump  into  a  cub.  There  is  a  thread  of  truth  running  through 
this  idea,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  extract  taken  by  Dyer 
from  "Arcana  Microcosmi,"  by  Alexander  Ross  :  "  Bears  bring 
forth  their  young  deformed  and  misshapen,  by  reason  of  the 
thick  membrane  in  which  they  are  wrapped,  that  is  covered  over 
with  a  mucous  matter.  This,  he  says,  the  dam  contracts  in  the 
winter-time,  by  lying  in  hollow  caves  without  motion,' so  that  to 
the  eye  the  cub  appears  like  an  unformed  lump.  The  above 
mucilage  is  afterwards  licked  away  by  the  dam,  and  the  mem- 
brane broken,  whereby  that  which  before  seemed  to  be  unformed 
appears  now  in  its  right  shape."  Ross  holds  that  this  was  well 
known  by  the  ancients  and  that  they  entertained  no  other  idea 
in  regard  to  it. 

Hence,  heap  of  wrath,  foul  indigested  lump, 
As  crooked  in  thy  manners  as  thy  shape  ! 

Henry  IV -2/7,  Act  I'.,  Sc.  I. 

I,  that  am  curtail'd  of  this  fair  proportion, 
Cheated  of  feature  by  dissembling  nature, 
Deform 'd,  unfinish'd,  sent  before  my  time 
Into  this  breathing  world,  scarce  half  made  up, 
And  that  so  lamely  and  unfashionable, 

08 


'HiSTETRICS. 

That  dogs  bark  at  me  as  I  halt  by  them  ; 
Why  I,  since  I  cannot  prove  a  lover, 

I  am  determined  to  prove  a  villain. 

Richard  III.,  Act  L,  Sc.  I. 

Marry,  they  say  my  uncle  grew  so  fast 

That  he  could  gnaw  a  crust  at  two  hours  old  ; 

'Twas  full  two  years  ere  I  could  get  a  tooth. 

Richard  III.,  Act  77. ,  Sc.  IV. 

Thou  elvish-mark 'd,  abortive,  rooting  hog! 
Thou  that  wast  sea  I'd  in  thy  nativity 
The  slave  of  nature  and  the  son  of  hell ! 
Thou  slander  of  thy  mother's  heavy  womb ! 
Thou  loathed  issue  of  thy  father's  loins! 

Richard  III.,  Act  L,  Sc.  III. 

Art  thou  so  hasty  ?     I  have  stay'd  for  thee, 
God  knows,  in  anguish,  pain  and  agony. 

A  grievous  burden  was  thy  birth  to  me. 

Richard  III.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

From  forth  the  kennel  of  thy  womb  hath  crept 
A  hell-hound  that  doth  hunt  us  all  to  death : 
That  dog,  that  had  his  teeth  before  his  eyes. 

Richard  III.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

A  few  other  quotations  referring  to  labor  are  here  found. 

By  her  he  had  two  children  at  one  birth. 

Henry  VI—  2rf,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

A  terrible  child-bed  hast  ihou  had,  my  dear; 

No  light,  no  tire. 

Pericles,  Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 

At  sea,  in  child-bed  died  she,  but  brought  forth 

A  maid-child  called  Marina. 

Pericles,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

The  child-bed  privilege  denied,  which  'longs 
To  women  of  all  fashion  ;— lastly,  hurried 
Here  to  this  place,  i'  the  open  air,  before 

I  have  got  strength  of  limit. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Alas  !  worlds  fall— and  woman  since  she  fell'd 
The  world  (as,  since  that  history,  less  polite 
Than  true,  hath  been  a  creed  so  strictly  held  ) 
Has  not  yet  given  up  the  practice  quite. 
Poor  thinpr  of  usages  !  coerced,  compell'd, 

69 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 


Victim  when  wrong,  and  martyr  oft  when  right, 

Condemn'd  to  child-bed,  as  men  for  their  sins. 

Have  shaving  too  entail'd  upon  their  chins,— 

A  daily  plague,  which,  in  the  aggregate, 

May  average  on  the  whole  with  parturition. 

But  as  to  women  who  can  penetrate 

The  real  sufferings  of  their  she  condition  ? 

Man's  very  sympathy  with  their  estate 

Has  much  of  selfishness  and  more  suspicion. 

Their  love,  their  virtue,  beauty,  education, 

But  form  good  housekeepers  to  breed  a  nation. 

Byron— Don  Juan,  Canto  XIV.,  Verse  XXIII. 

They  are  as  children  but  one  step  below, 
Even  of  your  mettle,  of  your  very  blood  ; 
Of  all  one  pain,  save  for  a  night  of  groans 
Endur'd  of  her,  for  whom  you  bid  like  sorrow. 

Richard  III.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

Would  I  hud  died  a  maid, 
And  never  seen  thee,  never  borne  thee  sou, 
Seeing  thou  hast  prov'd  so  unnatural  a  father ! 
Hath  he  deserv'd  to  lose  his  birthright  thus? 
Hadst  thou  but  lov'd  him  half  so  well  as  I, 
Or  felt  that  pain  which  I  did  for  him  once, 

Or  nourish'd  him,  as  I  did  with  my  blood. 
**•»**«•«•* 

Henry  VI—  3d,  Ad  /.,  .SV-.  /. 

He  is  your  brother,  lords;  sensibly  fed 
Of  that  self-blood  that  first  gave  life  to  you ; 
And  from  that  womb  where  you  imprisou'd  were, 
He  is  enfranchised  and  come  to  light. 

Titus  Andronictts,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

The  child  was  prisoner  to  the  womb,  and  is 
By  law  and  process  of  great  Nature,  thence 
Freed  and  eufranchi»'d. 

Winter'*  Tale,  Act  II. ,  Sc.  II. 

She  said,  no  shepherd  sought  her  side, 
No  hunter's  hand  her  snood  untied, 
Yet  ne'er  again  to  braid  her  hair 
The  virgin  snood  did  Alice  wear  ; 
Gone  was  her  maiden  glee  and  sport, 
Her  maiden  girdle  all  too  short. 
Nor  sought  she,  from  that  fatal  night. 
Or  holy  church  or  blessed  rite, 
But  lock'd  her  secret  in  her  breast, 
And  died  in  travail  unconfess'd. 

Scott  —  /,«'///  of  the  Lake,  Omfo  IIL.  Verse  V. 

70 


^BSTETRICS. 

My  princely  father  then  had  wars  in  France; 
And  by  true  computation  of  the  time, 
Found  that  the  issue  was  not  his  begot. 

Richard  III.,  Act  TIL,  Sc.  V. 

Worse  than  a  slavish  wipe,  or  birth  hour's  blot: 
For  murks  descried  in  men's  nativity 
Are  nature's  faults,  not  their  own  infamy. 

Lucrece. 

A  few  quotations  on  abortion,  and  some  others  that  are  inti- 
mately related  to  obstetrics,  remain. 

If  ever  he  have  child,  abortive  be  it, 

Prodigious,  and  untimely  brought  to  light, 

Whose  ugly  and  unnatural  aspect  * 

May  fright  the  hopeful  mother  at  the  view. 

Itirhiml  III.,  AH  I.,Sc.  //. 

Why  should  I  joy  in  any  abortive  birth  ? 

7,o/r'.s  I. a  hour' x  Lost,  Act  /.,  Sc.  I. 

Truth  is  truth :  large  length  of  seas  and  shores 
Between  my  father  and  my  mother  lay, — 
And  I  have  heard  my  father  speak 
That  this,  my  mother's  son,  was  none  of  his; 
And,  if  he  were,  he  came  into  the  world 
Full  fourteen  weeks  before  the  course  of  time. 

King  John,  Act  I.,  Sc.  I. 

Shakespeare  has  interwoven  some  of  his  family  history  here, 
and  made  the  advent  of  Philip,  the  Bastard,  correspond  exactly 
to  the  untimely  birth  of  his  eldest  daughter  Susanna,  who  ap- 
peared only  five  and  a  half  months  after  his  marriage — "full 
fourteen  weeks  before  the  course  of  time."  Later  on  in  the  play 
wre  tind  the  following: 

Your  brother  is  legitimate, 
Your  father's  wife  did  after  wedlock  bear  him. 

— thus  furnishing  proof  of  legitimacy  in  such  cases. 

She  is,  something  before  her  time,  deliver'd. 
*     A  daughter  ;  and  a  goodly  babe, 

Lusty,  and  like  to  live. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  IL,  Sc.  II. 

()  pray  God,  the  fruit  of  her  womb  miscarry. 

Henry  IV—  2d,  Act,  V.,  Sc.  IV. 

71 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 


She  hud  also  snatch'd  a  moment  since  her  marriage 
To  bear  a  son  and  heir—  and  one  miscarriage. 

liijrnn  —  Don  Ji/nii,  (\uilo  XIV.,   JVw  1,  VI. 

Macduff  was  from  his  mother's  womb 
Untimely  ripp'd. 

Macbeth,  Act  V.,  8c.   nil. 

Some  griefs  are  med'ciuable  ;  that  is,  one  of  them, 

For  it  doth  physic  love. 

Cymbeline,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

This  bastard  graff  shall  never  come  to  growth  : 
He  shall  not  boast  who  did  thy  stock  pollute  . 
That  thou  art  doting  father  of  his  fruit. 

Lucrece. 

Grant,  that  our  hopes,  (yet  likely  of  fair  birth) 
Should  be  still-born.  *  *  ;:  :: 

Henry  IV—Z<1,  Act  /.,  Sc.  III. 

The  barren,  touched  in  this  holy  chase, 
Shake  oif  their  sterile  curse. 

Julius  Cicsar,  Act  /.,  »S'r.  //. 

This  supposed  charm  against  sterility,  says  Dyer,  "  is  copied 
from  Plutarch,  who,  in  his  description  of  the  festival  Lupercalia, 
tells  us  how  'noble  young  men  run  naked  through  the  city, 
striking  in  sport  whom  they  meet  in  the  way  with  leather  thongs,' 
which  blows  were  commonly  believed  to  have  the  wonderful 
effect  attributed  to  them  by  Caesar." 

I  had  then  laid  wormwood  to  my  dug, 

it  did  taste  the  wormwood  on  the  nipple 
Of  my  dug,  and  felt  it  bitter. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  /.,  Sc.  III. 

I  have  given  suck,  and  know 
How  tender  'tis  to  love  the  babe  that  milks  me; 
I  would,  while  it  was  smiling  in  my  face, 
Have  pluck  'd  my  nipple  from  his  boneless  gums, 
And  dash'd  the  brains  out,  had  I  so  sworn 
As  you  have  done  to  this.  Macbeth,  Act  /.,  ,SV.   VII. 

Eprfis,  oysters  too,  are  amatory  food. 

Byron  —  Don  Juan.  Canto,  II.,  l>w  CLXX. 

Surely  Byron  knew  of  the  stimulating  qualities  of  eggs  and 
oysters,  and  no  doubt  took  them  with  as  much  faith  as  the  worn- 
out  debauchee  of  to-day  does,  as  he  sits  down  to  his  "  plate  of 
raw"  and  his  "sherry  and  egg." 


PART  V. 

PHYSIOLOGY. 

Mr.  Ilackctt,  noticing  the  numerous  allusions  in  Shakespeare 
to  the  Mood,  and  to  a  circulation  of  this  fluid  to  and  from  the 
heart  or  the  liver,  was  led,  in  1859,  to  express  the  absurd  idea 
that  William  Shakespeare  had  anticipated  Harvey  in  the  dis- 
covery of  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 

"  What  damned  error,  but  some  sober  brow 
Will  bless  it.  and  approve  it  with  a  text." 

Mr.  Hackett  found  many  thoughts  in  Shakespeare  concerning 
the  circulation  which  were  applicable  to  Harvey's  theory. 

St-f.  how  the  blood  is  settled  in  his  face! 
Oft  have  I  seen  a  timely-parted  ghost, 
Of  ashy  semblance,  meagre,  pale  and  bloodless, 
Keing  all  descended  to  the  labouring  heart; 
Who,  in  the  eontlict  that  it  holds  with  death, 
Attracts  the  same  for  aidance  'gainst  the  enemy  ; 
Which  with  the  heart  there  cools,  and  ne'er  returneth 
To  blush  and  beautify  the  cheek  again. 

Henru  VI—  :></.,  Act  III.,  ,S'r.  //. 

You  are     »     *     *     * 

As  dear  to  me  as  are  the  ruddy  drops 

That  visit  my  sad  heart. 

Julius  Csesar,  Act  II.,  Sc.  I. 

Why  does  my  blood  thus  muster  to  my  heart, 
Making  both  it  unable  for  itself, 
And  dispossessing  all  my  other  parts 
Of  necessary  fitness? 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  II.,  Sc.  IV. 

My  heart  drops  blood. 

Oymbeline,  Act  V.,  Sc  V. 

I  am  sure  my  heart  wept  blood. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  V.,  Sc.  II. 

73 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

These  words  of  yours  draw  life-blood  from  my  heart. 

Henry  VL,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  VI. 

The  blood  weeps  from  my  heart. 

Henry  IV—  2rf,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  IV. 

I  send  it  through  the  rivers  of  your  blood, 

Even  to  the  court,  the  heart — to  the  seat  o'  the  brain ; 

And,  through  the  cranks  and  offices  of  man, 

The  strongest  nerves  and  small  inferior  veins, 

From  me  receive  that  natural  competency 

Whereby  they  live. 

Coriolanits,  Act  /.,  Sc.  I. 

The  tide  of  blood  in  me 
Hath  proudly  flow'd  in  vanity,  till  now; 
Now  doth  it  turn,  and  ebb  back  to  the  sea, 
Where  it  shall  mingle  with  the  state  of  floods, 
And  flow  henceforth  in  formal  majesty. 

Henry  IV— 2d,  Act  V.,  Sc.  II. 

The  spring,  the  head,  the  fountain  of  your  blood 
Is  stopp'd  ;  the  very  source  of  it  is  stopped. 

Macbeth,  Act  //.,  Sc.  II. 

my  heart,     *    *    * 

The  fountain  from  the  which  my  current  runs, 
Or  else  dries  up. 

Othello,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

I  cannot  rest 

Until  the  white  rose  that  I  wear,  be  dy'd 
Even  in  the  lukewarm  blood  of  Henry's  heart. 

Henry  VI— M,  Act  I.,  Sc.  II. 

Snakes,  in  my  heart-blood  warm'd,  that  sting  my  heart ! 

Richard  II.,  Act  III.  Sc.  II. 

Thy  heart-blood  I  will  have  for  this  day's  work. 

Henry  VI. ,  Act  /.,  Sc.  III. 

Thou  wouldst  have  left  thy  dearest  heart-blood  there, 
Kather  than  have  made  that  savage  duke  thine  heir. 

Henry  FT— 3d,  Act  I.,  Sc.  I. 

Her  blue  blood  changed  to  black  in  every  vein, 
Wanting  the  spring  that  those  shrunk  pipes  had  fed, 
Show'd  life  imprison'd  in  a  body  dead. 

Lucrece. 


74 


i  .    VSIOLOGY. 

Corrupted  blood  some  watery  token  shows ; 
And  blood  untainted  still  doth  red  abide, 
('•lushing  at  that  which  is  so  putrefied. 

Lticrece. 

I. \en  here  she  sheathed  in  her  harmless  breast 
A  harm  fill  knife.     ****** 
And  bubbling  from  her  breast,  it  doth  divide 
In  two  slow  rivers,  that  the  crimson  blood 
Circles  her  body  in  on  every  side,    *    *    * 
Some  of  her  blood  still  pure  and  red  remain'd, 
And  some  look'd  blaek. 

/.ncrece. 

I'.nt  are  you  flesh  and  blood  ? 

Have  you  a  working  pulse? 

Pericles,  Act  F.,  Sc.  I. 

I  drink  the  air  lu-lnic  me.  and  return 
il    pulsr  t  \\  irr  beat 

Tempest,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

My  ]>n]s«-  as  yours  doth  temperately  keep  time, 
And  iiiaUr-  as  healthful  music. 

I  In  ni  1,1.  Act  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

Your  puKidize  ln-ats  ;i>  r.\ i  raordinai  ily  as  heart  would  desire. 

//-///•//  IV  -•>,!.  .1,7  //.,  Sc.  IV. 

I:\.M,  a>  my  life,  or  blood  that  fosters  it. 

Perfefet,  .\<t  IL,Sc.  V. 

Swift  as  ijuicksilver  it  courses  through 
The  natural  ^ates  and  alleys  of  the  body. 

Hamlet,  Act  /.,  Sc.  V. 

died  in  1616.  Harvey  first  published  his  theory 
in  lUlli.  It  IIIIIM  I.,-  ivim-mlnMvd  that  at  this  time  many  ideas 
were  at]->at  concerning  the  eiroalfttion.  Among  the  older  theories 
were  tlmso  of  Ifippocrates,  Praxu^oras,  and  Erasistratus,  who 
hrl<i  that  tin-  art  cries  contained  air,  and  that,  therefore,  the  veins 
tlio  <>n1y  blood-holding  vessels,  and  that  they  had  their 
in  the  liver  (Jalcn,  the  most  celebrated  of  ancient  medi- 
cal writers,  who  lived  as  early  as  150  A.  D.  taught  that  the  left 
ventricle  of  the  heart  was  the  common  origin  of  all  arteries,  and 
that  the  arteries  of  living  animals  contained  blood,  not  air;  but 
he  did  not  advance  with  his  studies  so  as  to  learn  in  what  direc- 
tion the  hlood  flowed,  or  whether  it  was  movable  or  stationary. 

75 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

The  distinguished  Michael  Scrvctus,  who  was  burned  with  his 
books,  by  order  of  Calvin,  in  1553,  taught  that  the  blood  flowed 
from  the  right  ventricle,  through  the  pulmonary  artery  to  the 
lungs,  and  thence  through  the  plumonary  vein  and  left  auricle 
into  the  corresponding  ventricle  from  which  it  was  conveyed  by 
the  aorta  to  all  parts  of  the  body.  Dr.  Bucknill  is  of  the  opinion 
that  Shakespeare  followed  Hippocrates  in  his  theory  that  the 
veins  were  the  only  blood  vessels  and  that  they  came  from  the 
liver.  It  is  very  evident,  from  the  many  allusions  given  below, 
that  he  did  at  different  periods  adhere  to  this  belief. 

Let  my  liver  rather  heat  with  wine, 

Thau  my  heart  cool  with  mortifying  groans. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  I.,  >SV«.  7. 

For  Andrew,  if  he  were  opened,  and  you  find  so  much  blood  in  his  liver  n.s 
will  clog  the  foot  of  a  flea,  I'll  eat  the  rest  of  the  anatomy. 

Twelfth  Nialit,  Act  III.,  ,SV-.  //. 
I'll  empty  all  these  veins, 
And  shed  my  dear  blood  drop  by  drop. 

Henry  IV.,  AH  /.,  Sc.  ///. 
I'll  have  more  lives 
Than  drops  of  blood  were  in  my  father's  veins. 

Henry  VI—  3d,  Act  /.,  Sc.  /. 
Let  me  have 

A  dram  of  poison  ;  such  soon-speeding  gear 
As  will  disperse  itself  through  all  the  veins. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  V..  Sc.  /. 

I  freely  told  you,  all  the  wealth  I  had 
Ran  in  my  veins 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  III,  Sc.  II. 

The  blood  and  courage  that  renowned  them, 
Runs  in  your  veins. 

Henry  V.,  Act  /.,  Sc.  II. 

— through  all  thy  veins  shall  run 
A  cold  and  drowsy  humour,  which  shall  seize 
Each  vital  spirit ;  for  no  pulse  shall  keep 
His  natural  progress  but  surcease  to  beat. 

Borneo  and  Juliet,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 
There  fa    *    *    *V»    * 
Scarce  blood  enough  in  all  their  sickly  veins. 

Henry  V.,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

7f> 


PHYSIOLOGY. 

My  })lood  speaks  to  you  in  my  veins. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

While  warm  life  plays  in  that  infant's  veins. 

King  John,  Act  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

Had  bak'd  thy  hlood,  and  made  it  heavy  thick, 
Which,  else,  runs  tickling  up  and  down  the  veins. 

King  John,  Act  III.,  Sc.  III. 

Tis  thy  presence  that  exhales  this  blood 

From  cold  and  empty  veins,  where  no  blood  dwells. 

Richard  III.,  Act  L,  Sc.  II. 

Stuffd  within  with  bloody  veins. 

Pericles,  Act  I.,  8c.  IV. 

For  every  false  drop  in  her  bawdy  veins 
A  Grecian's  life  hath  sunk. 

7Vo/7»/x  inn!  Cressida,  Act  IV.,  S<:  7. 

If  so  thou  yield  him,  there  is  gold,  and  here 
Mv  bluest  veins  to  kiss. 

Antony  and  Clco^alra,  Ad  II.,  Sc.   V. 

That  those  veins 

Did  verily  bear  blood. 

Winter's  Tale,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

The  veins  unfill'd,  our  blood  is  cold. 

Coriolanus,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

I  have  a  faint  cold,  fear  thrills  through  my  veins 
That  almost  free/es  up  the  heat  of  life. 

Borneo  and  Juliet,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

— purple  fountains  issuipg  from  your  veins. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  I.,  Sc.  I. 

The  arteries  or  "  air  pipes"  were  supposed,  according  to  this 
theory  of  Hippocrates,  to  contain  an  aerial  fluid. 

These  pipes  and  these  conveyances  of  our  Wood. 

Coriolanu*,  Act  V.,  Sc.  I. 

Universal  plodding  poisons  up 
The  nimble  spirits  in  the  arteries. 

Love'*  Labour's  Lost,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  III. 

My  fate  cries  out, 
And  makes  each  petty  artery  in  this  body 

Vs  hardy  as  the  Nemean  lion's  nerve. 

Hamlet,  Act  L,  Sc.  IV. 

77 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

It  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Shakespeare  did  riot  tie 
himself  down  to  any  one  theory  concerning  the  circulation,  but 
that  sometimes  he  had  in  mind  the  theory  of  Michael  Servetus, 
(to  which  all  the  heart  allusions  will  apply),  and  at  other  times 
that  of  Hippocrates,  (which  accounts  for  all  the  thoughts  regard- 
ing the  liver  as  the  propeller  of  the  blood  through  the  veins). 
The  immortal  Harvey  was  the  first  to  point  out  the  true  idea  of 
the  circulation  :  the  idea  that  the  blood  was  forced  by  the  heart 
through  the  arteries,  a  pure  live-supporting  fluid  ;  that  it  went 
to  the  extreme  parts  of  the  body,  giving  nutriment,  taking  up 
impurities,  and  then  returning  by  way  of  the  veins  to  the  heart, — 
thence  to  the  lungs  to  be  purified  before  being  again  sent  out  on 
it's  life-sustaining  journey.  None  of  the  quotations  from  Shakes- 
peare express  this  idea,  excepting  perhaps  one,  and  that  rather 
vaguely. 

The  tide  of  blood  in  me 
Hath  proudly  flow'd  in  vanity,  till  now ; 
Now  doth  it  turn,  and  ebb  back  to  the  sea, 
Where  it  shall  mingle  with  the  state  of  floods, 
And  flow  henceforth  in  formal  majesty. 

Henry  IV—  2d,  Act  V.,  *SV.  //. 

We  can  not  believe,  however  that  he  possessed  the  knowledge 
of  Harvey's  theory,  and  can  only  say  in  his  own  words  : 

There  is  no  vice  so  simple,  but  assumes 
Some  mark  of  virtue  on  it's  outward  parts. 

The  physiology  of  the  digestive  system  is  excellently  described 
in  Coriolanus. 

Men.      There  was  a  time,  when  all  the  body's  members 
Rebell'd  against  the  belly ;  thus  accus'd  it : 
That  only  like  a  gulf  it  did  remain 
I'  the  midst  o'  the  body,  idle  and  unactive, 
Still  cupboarding  the  viand,  never  bearing 
Like  labour  with  the  rest,  where  the  other  instruments 
Did  see,  and  hear,  devise,  instruct,  walk,  feel, 
And  mutually  participate,  did  minister 
Unto  the  appetite  and  affection  common 
Of  the  whole  body.     The  belly  answer'd 

with  a  kind  of  smile, 
Which  ne'er  came  from  the  lungs,  but  even  thus, 

7S 


For,  look  you,  I  may  make  the  belly  smile,        , 
As  well  as  speak, — it  tauntingly  replied 
To  the  discontented  members,  the  mutinous  parts 
That  envied  his  receipt.     *    *    * 
•x-         *         *         *         *         *         *     "  *         * 
l*t  r/7.  Your  belly's  answer?  What! 

The  kingly-crown'd  head,  the  vigilant  eye, 
The  counsellor  heart,  the  arm  our  soldier, 
Our  steed  the  leg,  the  tongue  our  trumpeter, 
With  other  muniments  and  petty  helps 
In  this  our  fabric,  if  that  they     *     *    * 
Should,  by  the  cormorant  belly  be  restrain'd, 
Who  is  the  sink  o'  the  body. 

Men.      * 

True  it  is,  quoth  the  belly, 

That  I  receive  the  general  food  at  first, 

Which  you  do  live  upon  :  and  fit  it  is, 

Because  I  am  the  store  house  and  the  shop 

Of  the  whole  body :  but  if  you  do  remember, 

I  send  it  through  the  rivers  of  your  blood, 

K\  en  to  the  court,  the  heart — to  the  seat  o'  the  brain  ; 

And,  through  the  cranks  and  offices  of  man, 

The  strongest  nerves  and  small  inferior  veins, 

From  me  receive  that  natural  competency 

Whereby  they  live.  Act  L,  Sc.  I. 

For  your  digestion's  sake 
An  after-dinner  speech. 

Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 

To  make  our  appetites  more  keen, 

With  eager  compounds  we  our  palate  urge. 

Sonnets,  CXVIII. 

My  cheese,  my  digestion. 

Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  II.,  Sc.  III. 

I  say,  whatever  you  maintain 
( >f  Alma  in  the  heart  or  brain, 
The  plainest  man  alive  may  tell  ye 
Her  seat  of  empire  is  the  belly. 
From  hence  she  sends  out  those  snpplies 
Which  make  us  either  stout  or  wise  ; 
Your  stomach  makes  the  fabric  roll 
.Inst  as  the  bias  rules  the  bowl. 
The  great  Achilles  might  employ 
The  strength  designed  to  ruin  Troy  ; 
He  dined  on  lion's  marrow,  spread 
On  toast  of  ammunition  bread  ; 
But  by  his  mother  sent  away 

79 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

Amongst  the  Tlimciau  girls  to  play, 
Kffeminate  he  sat  and  quiet— 
Strange  product  ot'a  cheese-cake  diet  .' 
Was  ever  Tartar  lieree  or  cruel 
rpon  tlu'  strength  of  water-gruel  ? 
Hut  who  shall  stand  his  rage  or  force 
If  first  lie  rides,  then  eats  his  horse? 
Salads  and  eggs,  and  lighter  fare, 
Tunes  the  Italian  spark's  guitar  ; 
And,  if  I  take  Dan  Congrieve  right, 
Pudding  and  beef  make  Britons  tight. 
Tokay  and  eoll'ee  cause  this  work 
Between  the  (iennan  and  the  Turk  : 
And  both,  as  they  provisions  want, 
( 'hicane,  avoid,  retire,  and  faint. 


Hut,  spoil  the  organ  of  digestion, 

And  you  entirely  change  the  question  : 

Ahna's  affairs  no  power  can  mend  : 

The  jest,  alas  !  is  at  an  end.    *    *    *  Prior. 

A  few  remaining  physiological  thoughts  are  interesting.  A  s 
is  well  known,  we  are  much  better  able  to  judge  the  size  and 
distance  of  objects  on  the  same  level  with  us  than  we  are  when 
they  are  either  above  or  below  us.  When  we  view  objects  from 
a  height  they  appear  much  less  than  they  would  were  we  at  the 
same  distance  from  them  on  the  same  level.  Shakespeare  has 
beautifully  shown  this  effect  in  King  Lear. 

How  fearful 

And  dizzy  'tis,  to  cast  one's  eyes  so  low ! 
The  crows,  and  choughs,  that  wing  the  midway  air, 
Show  scarce  so  gross  as  beetles.     Half  way  down 
Hangs  one  that  gathers  samphire;  dreadful  trade  ! 
Methinks,  he  seems  no  bigger  than  his  head  : 
The  fishermen  that  walk  upon  the  beach, 
Appear  like  mice.     *    *    *    *  Act  IV.,  Sc.  VL 

The  subject  of  pupillary  reflexes  has  received  mention  by 
many  of  the  older  writers.  It  was  a  source  of  amusement  to 
lovers  in  the  old  time  to  look  into  each  others  eyes  in  search  of 
their  own  reflection. 

Joy  had  the  like  conception  in  our  eyes, 
And,  at  that  instant,  like  a  babe,  sprung  up. 

Timon  of  Athens,  Act  /.,  *S'c.  //. 
Look  in  my  eyes,  my  blushing  fair, 
Thou'lt  see  thyself  reflected  there  ; 
As  I  gaze  on  thine,  I  see 
Two  little  miniatures  of  me. 

80 


i  .'YSIOLOGY. 

Thus  in  our  looks  some  propagation  lies, 

For  we  make  babies  in  each  other's  eyes.  •/'„„,  Moore. 

When  a  young  lady  wrings  you  by  the  hand,  thus, 
Or  with  an  amorous  touch  presses  your  foot ; 
Looks  babies  in  your  eyes,  plays  with  your  locks. 

Masstoger—Ilenegado,  Act  II. ,  Sc,  IV. 

It  has  l.ecn  a  view  long  held  that  the  height  of  the  forehead 
is  an  index  of  the  intellectual  character  of  the  individual. 
Shakespeare  has  referred  to  this  in  several  plays. 

We  shall  lose  our  time, 
And  all  be  turn'd  to  barnacles,  or  to  apes, 
With  foreheads  villainous  low.  Tempest,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 

Ay,  but  her  forehead's  low,  as  mine's  as  high. 

Tiro  (JrntfciHcn  of  Verona,  Act  IV.,  Sc  IV. 

Bear'st  thou  her  face  in  mind  ?  is't  long  or  round  ? 
Round,  even  to  faultiness. 
For  tlu>  most  part  too, 

They  are  foolish  that  are  so.     Her  hair,  what  colour? 
IJrown,  madame,  and  her  forehead 
As  low  as  you  would  wish  it. 

Antony  utifl  Cleopatra,  Act  III.,  Sc.  III. 

The  old  superstition  that  much  hair  on  the  head  indicated  a 
want  of  intellect  is  alluded  to  in  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona. 

SfHtii.    Item.  ->7/r  //"///  IIKHT  lini i-  flnin  irif. 

IMUH.  More  hair  than  wit, — it  may  be:  I'll  prove  it:  the  cover  of  the  salt 
hides  the  salt,  and  therefore  it  is  more  than  the  salt;  the  hair  that 
covers  the  wit  is  more  than  the  wit;  for  the  greater  hides  the  less. 

Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 
Ant.  N.     Why  is  Time  such  a  niggard  of  hair,  being,  as  it  is,  so  plentiful  an 

excrement  ? 
/)/•(>.  .s.     Because  it  is  a  blessing  that  he  bestows  on  beasts  ;  and  what  he  hath 

scanted  men  in  hair  he  hath  given  them  in  wit. 
Ant.  S.     Why,  but  there's  many  a  man  hath  more  hair  than  wit. 
Dro.  S.    Not  a  man  of  those  but  he  hath  the  wit  to  lose  his  hair. 
Ant.  N.     Why,  thou  did'st  conclude  hairy  men  plain  dealers  without  wit. 

Comedy  of  Errors.  Act  II.,  Sc.  II. 
Tliis  great  voluminous  pamphlet  may  be  said 
To  be  like  one  that  hath  more  hair  than  head  ; 
More  excrement  than  body  :  trees  which  sprout 
With  broadest  leaves  have  still  the  smallest  fruit.         Suckling— Aglaura. 

He  had  some  idea  of  the  sympathetic  connection  between  the 
organs  of  the  body,  and  has  furnished  us  with  a  good  example 

81 


MEDICAL    THOlliHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

of  superstition  connected  with  sympathy.  It  was  an  old  super- 
stition that  the  wounds  of  a  murdered  person  would  bleed  afresh 
if  the  body  was  touched  by  the  murderer,  and  this  has  nicely 
been  brought  out  in  Richard  III. 

O,  gentlemen,  see,  see!  dead  Henry's  wounds 

Open  their  congeal'd  mouths  and  bleed  afresh  ! 

Blush,  bliifc.li,  thou  lump  of  foul  deformity ; 

For  'tis  thy  presence  that  exhales  this  blood 

From  cold  and  empty  veins,  where  no  blood  dwells, 

Thy  deed,  inhuman  and  unnatural, 

Provokes  this  deluge  most  unnatural.  Act  I.,  Sc.  II. 

Dunglison  explains  these  superstitions  "  either  on  purely  phy- 
sical principles,  or  on  the  excited  imagination  of  the  observer," 
and  cites  two  interesting  cases — one  attested  by  John  Demarest, 
coroner  of  Bergen  county,  New  Jersey,  (1767),  and  the  other 
which  occurred  near  Easton,  Pennsylvania.  Of  the  latter  case 
he  says  :  "  The  superstition  has,  indeed,  its  believers  among  us. 
On  the  trial  of  Getter,  who  was  executed  about  five  years  ago 
(1833)  in  Pennsylvania,  for  the  murder  of  his  wife,  a  female  wit- 
ness deposed  on  oath  as  follows  :  '  If  my  throat  was  to  be  cut, 
I  could  tell,  before  God  Almighty,  that  the  deceased  smiled  when 
he  (the  murderer)  touched  her.  I  swore  this  before  the  justices, 
and  that  she  bled  considerably.  I  was  sent  for  to  dress  her  and 
lay  her  out.  He  touched  her  twice.  He  made  no  hesitation 
about  doing  it.  I  also  swore  before  the  justice  that  it  was 
observed  by  other  people  in  the  house.'  "  Dyer  cites  a  number 
of  similar  cases,  and  quotes  the  following  as  a  supposed  cause  of 
the  phenomenon  from  the  "Athenian  Oracle,"  (1-106)  :  "  The 
blood  is  congealed  in  the  body  for  two  or  three  days,  and  then 
becomes  liquid  again,  in  its  tendency  to  corruption.  The  air 
being  heated  by  many  persons  coming  about  the  body  is  the 
same  thing  to  it  as  motion  is.  'Tis  observed  that  dead  bodies 
will  bleed  in  a  concourse  of  people,  when  murderers  are  absent 
as  well  as  present,  yet  legislators  have  thought  it  fit  to  authorize 
it,  and  use  this  trial  as  an  argument,  at  least  to  frighten,  though 
'tis  no  conclusive  one  to  condemn  them."  The  practice,  how- 
ever, caused  many  an  innocent  spectator  to  receive  the  fatal 
penalty. 

82 


PART  VI. 

ANATOMY. 

Anatomy  received  some  attention. 

Ant.*.    What's  her  name? 

Dro.  S.  Nell,  sir;  hut  her  name  and  three  quarters,  that's  an  ell  and  three- 
quarters,  will  not  measure  her  from  hip  to  hip. 

Ant.  S.     Then  she  bears  some  breadth  ? 

I)i •<>.  N  No  longer  from  head  to  foot  than  from  hip  to  hip ;  she  is  spherical 
like  a  globe,— I  could  find  out  countries  on  her. 

A  at.  N.     In  what  part  of  her  body  stands  Ireland? 

Dro.  ,v.    Marry,  sir,  in  her  buttocks;  1  found  it  out  by  the  bogs. 

. I  /*/.  N.     Where's  Scotland  ? 

Dro.  X.    I  found  it  by  the  barrenness;  hard,  in  the  palm  of  the  hand. 

Ant.  X.     Where's  France? 

Dm.  S.    In  her  forehead  ;  arnfd  and  reverted,  making  war  against  her  heir. 

A  at.  X.     Where's  England? 

Dm.  X.  1  looked  for  the  chalky  cliffs,  but  I  could  find  no  whiteness  in  them; 
but  I  gm>s  it  stood  in  her  chin,  by  the  salt  rheum  that  ran  between 
France  and  it. 

A nt.  X.     Where's  Spain? 

Dro.  X.    Faith,  1  saw  it  not ;  but  I  felt  it  hot  in  her  breath. 

A  at.  X.     Where's  America,  the  Indies? 

Dr<>.  X.  (),  sir,  upon  her  nose, — all  o'er  embellished  with  rubies,  carbuncles, 
saphires,  declining  their  rich  aspect  to  the  hot  breath  of  Spain,  who 
sent  whole  armadoes  of  carracks  to  be  ballast  at  her  nose. 

A  at.  X.     Where  stood  Belgia,  the  Netherlands? 

Dro.  X.    O,  sir,  I  did  not  look  so  low. 

Comedy  of  Errors,  Act  III.,  8c.  IL 

Feed  where  thou  wilt,  on  mountain  or  in  dale: 

(Ira/e  on  my  lips;  and  if  those  hills  be  dry, 

Stray  lower,  where  the  pleasant  fountains  lie. 

Wilhin  this  limit  is  relief  enough, 

Sweet  bottom-graas,  and  high  delightful  plain, 

Round  rising  hillocks,  brakes  obscure  and  rough, 

To  shelter  thee  from  tempest  and  from  rain : 

Then  be  my  deer,  since  I  am  snch  a  park; 

Xo  dog  shall  rouse  thee,  though  a  thousand  bark. 

Venus  and  Adonis. 

The  old  superstition  that  our  bodies  consisted  of  the  elements — 
fire,  water,  earth  and  air — has  been  mentioned. 

83 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OP    SHAKESPEARE. 

Sir  Toby.        Does  not  our  life  consist  of  four  elements? 

Sir  Andrew.  'Faith  so  they  say  ;  but  I  think  it  rather  consists  of  eating  and 
drinking.  Twelfth  Night,  Act  II. ,  8c.  III. 

His  life  was  gentle  ;  and  the  elements 

So  mix'd  in  him,  that  nature  might  stand  up, 

And  say  to  all  the  world,  Thin  /w.s  a  man  ! 

Julius  desar,  Act  V.,  tic.  F. 

I  am  fire  and  air ;  my  other  elements 

I  give  to  baser  life.  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  F. ,  tic.  //. 

O  tell  me,  friar,  tell  me, 
In  what  vile  part  of  this  anatomy 
Doth  my  name  lodge  ?          Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  III.,  tic.  III. 

The  brain  was  thought  only  to  have  three  ventricles  by  the 
old  anatomists ;  what  is  now  the  fourth  ventricle  was  called  by 
them  the  third,  and  was  supposed  to  be  the  seat  of  memory. 

A  foolish  extravagant  spirit,  full  of  forms,  figures,  shapes,  objects,  ideas, 
apprehensions,  motions,  revolutions:  these  are  begot  in  the  ventricle  of  mem- 
ory, nourished  in  the  womb  of  pia  mater. 

Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  IV.,  ti<:  II. 

— whose  skull  Jove  cram  with  brains  ! 
has  a  most  weak  pia  mater. 

Twelfth  Niyht,  Act  I.,  tic.   V. 

Many  a  time,  but  for  a  sallet,  my  brain-pan  had  been  cleft  with  a  brown  bill. 

Henry  VI—  2d,  Act  IF.,  Sc.  X. 
Servant.     My  lord  you  have  one  eye  left. 
Cornwall.  Lest  it  see  more,  prevent  it. — 
Out,  vile  jelly ! 

Where  is  thy  lustre  now? 

King  Lear,  Act  III.,  Sc.  VII. 

Like  a  strutting  player, — whose  conceit 

Lies  in  his  hamstring.         Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  I.,  Sc.  III. 

Thy  bones  are  hollow. 

Measure  for  Measure,  Act  /.,  tic.  II. 

Thy  bones  are  marrowless.        Macbeth,  Act  ILL,  tic.  IV. 

A  dying  Moslem,  who  had  felt  the  foot 
Of  a  foe  o'er  him,  snatch'd  at  it,  and  bit 
The  very  tendon  which  is  most  acute— 
(That  which  some  ancient  muse  or  modern  wit 
Named  after  thee  Achilles)  and  quite  through't 
He  made  the  teeth  meet. 

Byron— Don  Juan,  Canto  VI IT.,  Ver*e  LXXXIV. 

84 


PART  VII. 

PHARMACY. 

Pharmacy  was  not  overlooked. 

I  do  remember  an  apothecary, — 

And  hereabouts  he  dwells, — which  late  I  noted 

In  tatter'd  weeds,  with  overwhelming  brows, 

Culling  of  simples:  meagre  were  his  looks, 

Sharp  misery  had  worn  him  to  the  bones; 

And  in  his  needy  shop  a  tortoise  huug, 

An  alligator  stutf'd,  and  other  skins 

Of  ill-shap'd  fishes;  and,  about  his  shelves, 

A  beggarly  account  of  empty  boxes, 

(liven  earthen  pots,  bladders,  and  musty  seeds, 

Remnants  of  packthread,  and  old  cakes  of  roses, 

Were  thinly  scatter'd  to  make  up  a  show. 

Noting  this  penury,  to  myself  I  said — 

An  if  a  man  need  poison  now, 

"Whose  sale  is  present  death  in  Mantua, 

Here  lives  a  caitiff  wretch  would  sell  it  him. 

-::-  *          *          *          *          •*          *          -:<- 

What,  ho!  apothecary! 

Hoiitt'o  and  Juliet,  Act  F.,  8c.  I. 

O,  true  apothecary ! 
Thy  drugs  are  quick. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  J'.,  So.  III. 

He  did  buy  a  poison  of  a  poor  apothecary, 
And  there  withal  came  to  this  vault  to  die. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  V.,  Sc.  III. 

Bid  the  apothecary 
Bring  the  strong  poison  that  I  bought  of  him. 

Henry  VI— Zd,  Act  III.,  Sc.  III. 

Your  master  will  be  dead  ere  you  return ; 

There's  nothing  can  be  miuister'd  to  nature. 

That  can  recover  him.     Give  this  to  the  'pothecary, 

And  tell  me  how  it  works. 

Pericles,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 

Great  griefs,  I  see,  medicine  the  less. 

Cymbeline,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  II. 

85 


MEDICAL    THOUGHTS    OF    SHAKESPEARE. 

That  drug-damii'd  Italy  hath  out-craftied  him. 

Cymbeline,  Act  JIT.,  Sc.  IV. 

One,  whose  subdu'd  eyes, 
Albeit  unused  to  the  melting  mood, 
Drop  tears  as  fast  as  the  Arabian  trees 
Their  med'cinable  gum. 

Othello,  Act  V.,  Sc.  II. 

Set  ratsbane  by  his  porridge. 

King  Lear,  Act  III.,  Sc.  IV. 

I  had  as  lief  they  would  put  ratsbane  in  my  mouth,  as  offer  to  stop  it  with 
security. 

Henry  IV—  2d,  Act  I.,  Sc.  II. 

I  would  the  milk 

Thy  mother  gave  thee,  when  thou  suck'dst  her  breast, 
Had  been  a  little  ratsbane  for  thy  sake  ! 

Henry  VI.,  Act  V.,  Sc.  IV. 

If  you  have  poison  for  me  I  will  drink  it. 

King  Lear,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  VII. 

I  have  bought  the  oil,  the  balsamum  and  aqua-vitae. 

Comedy  of  Errors,  Act  IV.,  Sc.  I. 

Give  me  some  aqua-vitas. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  III.,  Sc.  II. 


UNIVERSITY 


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